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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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LOVE FOR SOULS. 



LOVE FOR SOULS 



BY THE 

REV. WILLIAM SCRIBNER 

author of 
Pray for the Holy Spirit," ''The Saviour's Converts," etc. 



f ».of 21 183. 

NEW YORK '^'^K^s 

CHARLES SCRIBNER' S SONS 
1882 







Copyright by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS, 
Electrotypers dr* Printers, 
52 gc 54 N. Sixth St., 
Philadelphia. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

The Nature of True Love for Souls i 



CHAPTER II. 

No Man can be a Disciple of Christ who does not Love 

Perishing Souls 1 1 

CHAPTER III. 
Love for Souls is a Gift of the Holy Spirit i8 

CHAPTER IV. 

For Christians to be deficient in Love for Souls is a great 

Sin 23 

CHAPTER V. 

If We are wanting in Pity for Perishing Souls We shall 

surely neglect Them 28 

CHAPTER VL 

We fail to fulfil one of the ends of our Continuance in this 

World whenever We are wanting in Love for Souls . 33 



VI CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE. 
It should deeply affect our Hearts, and make us more active 

in the work of Saving Souls, that God Himself seeks 

to save Them 38 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Some of the ways in which Sincere Love for Souls will 

manifest itself 43 

CHAPTER IX. 

Faithfulness to Perishing Souls will constrain us to tell them 

Painful, as well as Comforting, Truths 53 

CHAPTER X. 

Some of the Reasons why True Christians put forth such 

little effort to Save Perishing Souls 58 

CHAPTER XI. 

Real Love for Souls will make us anxious that professed 

Conversions should in all cases be Genuine .... 63 

CHAPTER XII. 

There is need of a great increase of Love for Perishing 
Souls, not only in the Hearts of Individual Believers, 
but in the Church of Christ as a United Whole ... 69 



CONTENTS, Vll 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE. 
Some of the Evidences which, if they really Exist, afford 

Proof that Love for Souls has a Place in the Heart . 77 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Obligations which the World is under to those who 

Love Souls 82 

CHAPTER XV. 

Very great Love for Souls is a Grace which all Ministers of 

the Gospel may be expected to possess 89 

CHAPTER XVI. 
How Love for Perishing Souls may be Increased .... 96 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NATURE OF TRUE LOVE FOR SOULS. 

T OVE for those who have no spiritual want 
^-^ supphed, and who are in danger of dying 
in their sins is entirely different from the benev- 
olence which is so often manifested by mere 
philanthropists. We pity the sick and wounded 
and try to minister to their wants and to lighten 
their sufferings, but this pity is of a different 
nature from that felt by God's people for perish- 
ing souls. Compassion is greatly stirred when 
thousands are in danger of undergoing a lingering 
death by famine, and large sums of money are 
freely and gladly contributed to purchase for 
them the food which they must have without 
delay, but this is not the same in kind as com- 
passion for those whom only the Bread of Life 



2 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

can save. Pity for men on account of their 
mental and bodily sufferings does not imply 
love for God. It is true that grace existing in 
the heart will lead us promptly to relieve the 
temporal necessities of men, but it is not true 
that kindness to the poor, and efforts to relieve 
tnen's temporal necessities, certainly and neces- 
sarily imply right feelings towards God and the 
presence of grace. It is most important to 
understand what true pity for perishing souls is 
not, and in what it really consists. 

We retain, .since the fall, conscience, a sense ot 
justice, the social affections, and when these 
principles of action exist in great strength they 
produce, even in many who are destitute of holi- 
ness, great amiability and worth of character. 
Many who have no real piety exhibit in their 
lives great magnanimity and sweetness of dispo- 
sition, and are kind to the poor. But since 
these virtues may, as was said, be possessed by 
persons who are destitute of holiness of heart 
and of love for God, they may exist without 
being accompanied by love for perishing souls. 
They may even exist where there is no belief 
that men are in need of salvation. 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 3 

Did we believe with the utmost sincerity that 
a friend who lately died was now undergoing 
torture in a place called purgatory, the thought 
of his torture by literal fire would horrify us, 
and our pity for him would be intense, but it 
would not be the same in kind as the pity which 
God's true people feel for souls completely 
under sin's dominion. 

Our Saviour did not teach us that angels re- 
joice whenever men, pressed down by earthly 
sorrows, are delivered from them, but that their 
joy is called forth when one is made holy; 
namely, when a sinner with a heart truly broken 
and penitent turns from sin unto God. This 
shows that the pity which angelic beings feel 
for our fallen race is pity for them considered 
as lost, considered as in bondage to sin, and 
doomed to suffer that death which is its wages. 

There is a happiness which has no moral 
character, i, e. which is neither holy nor sinful. 
There is also in our world much suffering of 
this description. But God was not thinking of 
this kind of misery, so abundant in the world, 
when He so loved the world as to give His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 



4 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

should not perish but have everlasting life. That 
which jnoved God to deliver up His Son for 
sinners was the sight of their subjection to the 
dominion and curse of sin. And we are like 
God when we too pity sinners on account of 
their slavery to sin. 

If love for souls is genuine it will be called 
forth by the thought of their exposure to pun- 
ishment after death. But what is this punish- 
ment ? 

When a soul dies impenitent and passes into 
the world of woe it carries within itself all the 
elements of perdition. Undoubtedly there is 
also imposed suffering, — positive infliction from 
the hand of God. Undoubtedly torments de- 
scend upon it from without. But it also suffers 
in other ways. There is the greater torment, 
consisting in the unrestrained raging of indwell- 
ing sin. There is also the agonized condition 
caused by remorse* or an accusing conscience, and 

* Not remorse for some of its sins but for all of them. For 
every sin will doubtless be remembered. In this life most of our 
sins are forgotten almost as soon as they are committed, and we 
also continually sin without being conscious of sinning, but each 
sin which the lost soul has committed here will be distinctly 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 5 

it is this which will give future punishment its 
moral character. We see then in what the pun- 
ishment consists which the impenitent endure 
after death. And if such is its nature how dif- 
ferent must be the pity, which Christians feel for 
those who are in danger of it from all other 
kinds of pity — how different from that pity which 
is excited by the contemplation of mere bodily 
suffering ! How evident, also, it is, that it is a 
compassion which can be felt only by true Chris- 
tians — only by those who have been made holy. 
I could indeed deeply pity those in danger of 
eternal punishment without my possessing a spark 
of holiness did I sincerely think that it consisted 
solely of physical suffering, but it must be impos- 
sible for me unless I am in some degree holy, to 
have compassion on those in danger of eternal 
punishment as long as I fully believe in my 
heart that punishment in hell consists in part in 
a sinner being totally abandoned by God ; that 

brought before its conscience in the world of woe. Probably 
nothing we have done, or have known, or experienced in the pre- 
sent life is ever so obliterated from the memory as not to come 
before the mind again and be distinctly remembered in the future 
state. This opinion is held by many. 



6 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

is in his being given up to sin, and tq go on sin- 
ning forever. While only those who have be- 
come holy can love perishing souls, it is also 
true that their love for them must be in exact 
proportion to their holiness. 

It is not for the reformation of sinners, nor 
is it to keep others from transgressing that the 
world of woe has been prepared for the wicked. 
But sin must be punished because justice would 
be outraged if it should go unpunished — in other 
words because sin has an inherent ill desert. It 
is because justice is and always will be, an attri- 
bute of God's character that sinners, unless 
Christ has atoned for all their sins, cannot pos- 
sibly escape punishment. This we must be able 
in some degree to see before we can have a deep 
anxiety for unpardoned sinners. At least, with- 
out the perception of the real nature of sin, 
namely, that it deserves punishment for what it 
is in itself, we could not believe that there is such 
a thing as remorse or an accusing conscience in 
the abode of the lost. When, however, we are 
enlightened to see that sin for its own sake de- 
serves punishment, pity for condemned sinners 
will be awakened in our hearts, and we shall 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 7 

long for their deliverance from that dreadful 
death to which they are justly sentenced. Where 
this longing for their salvation exists, there is 
true love for souls. 

We have alluded above to the nature of fu- 
ture punishment. As to its duration and inten- 
sity, we are taught in the Scriptures that it will 
be eternal, and also inconceivably great. The 
wicked are represented as blaspheming God, 
while they gnaw their tongues for pain. In 
Mark ix. 42-48, our Lord says it is better '' to 
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to 
go into hell into the fire that never shall be 
quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched." He tells us that " At the 
last day the judge shall say to those upon his 
left hand, ' Depart from me ye cursed into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his an- 
gels.' "—Matt. XXV. 41. " The Son of Man shall 
send forth, and shall cast them into a furnace of 
fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth/' 
— Matt. xiii. 41-42. These passages are not in- 
tended to teach that there is any physical fire in 
hell. Fire that never shall be quenched, lake 
of fire, furnace of fire, the undying worm — are 



8 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

images employed to convey the idea of unutter- 
able misery. Abandonment by the Spirit of 
God, the being given up to the dominion of evil 
passions, *' with the self-loathing, self-contempt, 
despair, and accusations of conscience, or re- 
morse therewith connected,'^ together with evils, 
the nature of which the Bible does not explain, 
inflicted directly by God, must produce a degree 
of suffering to which literal fire would be a posi- 
tive relief O believer ! cease not to look with 
compassion upon all in danger of being lost. 

Before we conclude this chapter, we have a 
word to add to what has been said on the sub- 
ject of remorse as constituting a part of the pun- 
ishment of those who die impenitent. Infants 
and idiots, no less than others, need to have an 
interest in Christ's atonement, and to be regene- 
rated before they can enter heaven, but the suf- 
ferings they endure (and this is one of the things 
which makes their sufferings mysterious) cannot 
be of the nature of punishment. For their suf- 
ferings are not only not attended with the actings 
of conscience, but there is in their case no pos- 
sibility of such actings. Conscience in them 



LOVE FOR SOULS, g 

being totally undeveloped, there is in their case 
no more possibility of the exercises or actings of 
such a faculty than if the moral sense had not 
been given them as' an original faculty of their 
souls. As long as it remains undeveloped in 
human beings, they are not moral agents. 
Therefore, as was said, the sufferings which they 
endure while in the state of infancy or idiocy 
cannot be sent on them as a punishment. And 
if we should suppose that the consciences of the 
lost were to become extinct — utterly to cease to 
have any existence, then from that moment their 
sufferings would not be real punishment. The 
existence of conscience in the soul is a necessary 
condition of its suffering the penalty of God's 
law, and the accusations of conscience, called re- 
morse, will cause much of the anguish which the 
lost will endure; and as was said, it is this which 
will give their punishment its moral character. 
The following quotation must strike every reader 
as forcible and true : " The emotion experienced 
on the performance of a wicked action is well 
known to every one. It has a distinctive appel- 
lation — remorse. It is a feeling distinguishable 

from all others, and more intolerable than any 
I* 



lO LOVE FOR SOULS, 

other species of pain. It is like a scorpion sting- 
ing the soul in its tenderest part. No language 
can exaggerate the misery of a soul abandoned 
to the torture of this feeling. And though, in 
time, it may seem to be allayed by forgetfulness 
of the crime, yet when any circumstance or as- 
sociation brings the evil action distinctly before 
the conscience, the torment is renewed. Thus 
acts of iniquity committed in heedless gaiety, 
often produce sensible remorse in the time of 
solitude and reflection ; and the sins of youth 
embitter old age. This feeling often accom- 
panies the sinner to his times of decline, and is 
the pain which most annoys him on his bed of 
death. As the feeling accompanies the guilty 
unto the last moment of their earthly existence, 
there is much reason to think that it will cause 
the bitterest anguish of a future state.'' — Outlines 
of Moral Science ^ by Dr. A. Alexander. 



CHAPTER II. 

NO MAN CAN BE A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST WHO 
DOES NOT LOVE PERISHING SOULS. 

TT 7E do not say that very ardent and lively 
^ ^ compassion for souls is necessary in order 
to prove one a Christian. We only say that it is 
sufficient proof that a man is not a Christian 
who is entirely destitute of this feeling. The 
feeling must at least exist in some degree. For 
consider what a total want of love for souls im- 
plies. First, it implies that we do not care 
whether they are the objects of God's displeasure 
or not. God's displeasure against a soul means 
his wrath felt towards it — a wrath which is not 
yet appeased, and which never can be appeased 
until the law is satisfied in its behalf by Christ's 
atonement — a wrath which, if poured out upon 
the soul, would destroy it. Now, a total want 
of love for souls implies that no anxiety is 
awakened in our minds on account of their being 

II 



12 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

the objects of God's displeasure — displeasure 
such as this, and surely this cannot consist with 
our being true disciples of Christ. 

In the second place, want of love for souls 
implies that we do not care if they continue to 
hate God. A totally depraved being, one who 
has been such from his birth, without ever having 
been changed by grace, hates the God of the 
Bible. He is blind to the loveliness of God's 
holiness. God's infinite holiness does not seem 
to him to be lovely, but odious. The carnal 
mind is enmity against God. It is a friend of 
the world — it rejects the Saviour, it resists the 
Holy Spirit. The enmity of the natural man to 
God is especially roused into activity when God 
opposes his plans and pursuits. Only those 
whose hearts are broken, and who have some 
tender sweet approval of God's opposition to all 
sin, only such have ceased to hate God. Im- 
penitent men hate the God of the Bible, however 
much complacency they may feel in some god 
of their own imagination. Now not to have any 
love whatever for impenitent souls is to be en- 
tirely indifferent to the fact that they belong to 
the class of beings who hate God, and how can 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 13 

we have such indifference, and yet be God's true 
children ? 

In the third place, total want of love for the 
soul of our neighbour, for his highest good, im- 
plies a willingness that his character should for- 
ever remain entirely dissimilar to God's. The 
true glory of a regenerated soul is that the 
image of God which man lost by the fall is now 
restored to it. It has been made in some degree 
holy — has regained a resemblance to God. 
Until regeneration has taken place, it bears not 
the faintest trace of the divine image — has not 
even the faintest spark of holiness. True Chris- 
tians long to have all men made holy, partakers 
of God's nature; but those who love not the 
souls of men have not a particle of this longing, 
and if this is the case, such persons cannot be 
real Christians. 

In the fourth place, to be without any love for 
souls, is to be insensible to their dreadful depri- 
vation, in that they have not the Holy Spirit and 
are strangers to His gracious operations. The 
Holy Spirit no less than the Father and the Son 
has an agency and performs a part in the soul's 
salvation, and it is in regenerating and sanctify- 



14 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

ing it, in communicating to it the holiness already- 
spoken of that his work consists. This is only 
a general statement of his agency or operations. 
He convinces the soul of sin. He enables it to 
see the beauty, glory and attractiveness of the 
truth. He enriches it with all the lovely graces 
of the Christian character. He gives it the 
power of seeing unseen things and of walking 
by faith. He gives it assurance of God's love, 
peace of conscience, and consolation and support 
in affliction. He enables it to behold the beauty 
and glory of Immanuel. These are some of the 
Holy Spirit's gracious operations, and in order that 
sinful needy souls may be the subjects of them, 
and thus be saved and finally glorified, He makes 
them His temple. Now, not to love souls in the 
least degree is to be perfectly indifferent whether 
they are thus richly blessed and is therefore to ^ 
be without any right to the name of Christian. 

In the fifth place, if one's heart contains not a 
particle of love for souls, it will feel no regret on 
account of the failure of the unrenewed to per- 
form those holy acts, and to cultivate those holy 
habits which are peculiar to Christians. A true 
Christian tries to conform his life to God's com- 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 15 

mandments. He redeems time to read and study 
the Scriptures. He keeps up the habit of con- 
tributing of his means to support the cause of 
Christ. He performs many deeds of kindness 
and mercy. These acts characterize all believers 
more or less. And above all, the people of God 
without a single exception, pray. Surely we 
were right in saying that one, who has no love 
for souls in his heart, cannot be a disciple of 
Jesus, if the absence of this love implies the ab- 
sence of all regret or sorrow that impenitent 
men are utter strangers to these holy acts and 
habits of the child of God. 

In speaking of the inward spiritual gifts be- 
stowed by the Holy Spirit on such as are the 
subjects of his gracious operations we alluded to 
the power which He gives to behold the beauty 
and glory of Immanuel. It is this power pos- 
sessed by all believers, which, above everything 
else, distinguishes them from other men. In 
this, more than in all else, their happiness and 
blessedness consist. And they deeply feel that 
if the unregenerate multitude, by whom they are 
surrounded, were only enlightened by the Spirit 
of God to see the loveliness of Jesus, they could 



l6 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

ask no more for them. Alas, the unregenerate 
know not Him who is the chief among ten 
thousand, the one altogether lovely, and it is this 
blindness of the perishing more than all other 
miseries belonging to their condition as lost sin- 
ners, which awakens the pity of God's people 
for them. And what wonder is it when we con- 
sider that all believers know by experience what 
Christ can be to a poor perishing sinner. They 
know that to be separated from Him and to die 
forever are the same — that it is only when Christ 
lives in the soul, that it lives. They sweetly feel 
that Christ is their own present joy and everlast- 
ing portion — their all in all. Dearer to them 
than all other hymns, are hymns of praise to 
Christ. Their favorite Christian poets are those 
who can praise the Saviour in such words as 
these : 

*' Jesus, the very thought of Thee, 
With sweetness fills my breast : 
But sweeter far Thy face to see, 
And in Thy presence rest. 

'* When once Thou visitest the heart, 
Then light begins to shine ; 
Then earthly vanities depart, 
Then kindles love divine. 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 17 

" Jesus, our only joy be Thou, 
As Thou our prize shall be ; 
Jesus, be Thou our glory now, 
And through eternity." 

The impenitent and the unbelieving are separated 
by an infinite distance from Christ. It is in this 
that their loss and their misery consist. 



CHAPTER III. 

LOVE FOR SOULS IS A GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

THE Holy Spirit no less than the Father and 
the Son, has an office to perform in the work 
of redemption. It is His office to reveal divine 
truth to men. First, he made the writers of the 
Scriptures His organs in the communication of 
God's will to a lost world, and, second, His 
Holy Word having been written. He reveals the 
divine truth contained in it to the souls of men 
by giving them a sight, a perception of its glor- 
ious qualities. For He everywhere attends di- 
vine truth by His power. He not only attends 
it by that influence called common grace, which 
extends to all men, elect and non-elect, but He 
illuminates the minds of God's people that they 
may know the truth externally revealed. He 
regenerates souls and then dwells in them to 
carry forward their sanctification. 

In former times there were extraordinary gifts 
of the Spirit, which were only designed to be 
i8 



LOV^ FOR SOULS. 19 

temporary, and which were not necessarily con- 
fined to believers. Unrenewed men might re- 
ceive them. The Holy Spirit gave to Saul "an- 
other heart," but not a new heart. Physical 
strength was given to Samson by the Spirit of 
the Lord. He also gave skill in curious work- 
manship to Bezaleel and Aholiab for the con- 
struction and adornment of the Tabernacle. 
These men may have been God's true children, 
but their receiving these gifts does not prove 
that they were. Upon Judas Iscariot and other 
unrenewed men, the Holy Spirit bestowed inspir- 
ation and the power of working miracles. 

As already said, the Holy Spirit constantly 
attends divine truth by that influence usually 
called common grace. Thus He enlightens the 
consciences of the unregenerate. He warns and 
strives with them. He constrains them to be- 
lieve certain truths of the Bible which they do 
not love and which they would willingly disbe- 
lieve. He so restrains them that the evil which 
is in them does not act itself out. Reluctant to 
give them up, he continues for a long season 
to urge them by his gentle influence to leave 
the path of destruction. The Holy Spirit's striv- 



20 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

ings with men are spoken of in Genesis vi. 3 — 
" My spirit shall not always strive with man/* 
They are the same in their nature now that they 
were in the days of the Antediluvians. They 
are the Spirit's common operations, but they do 
not necessarily bless and save the soul. They 
must be attended or followed by the communi- 
cation of that gift of God called faith. When 
a sinner receives this, his salvation is begun. 
But the gift or grace of faith cannot exist with- 
out having other graces associated with it. Some 
of these are sorrow for sin, a perception of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus, love for Jesus, 
a hungering and thirsting after righteousness and 
love for souls. Yes, love for souls must be classed 
with those gifts of the Spirit which are called 
graces. 

The Holy Spirit has the same love for the 
lost which the Father and the Son have, and this 
pity he communicates to all the people of God. 
It is important that Christians should recognize 
this as a gift of the Spirit, otherwise they fail 
to render Him the honour which is His due. 
Love for souls, like all other exercises of the 
spiritual life, is saving and sanctifying. There 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 21 

is something of the divine nature in it. It is 
more excellent than the gift of miracles, or the 
gift of prophecy, or the gift of tongues : " Though 
I speak with the tongues of men and angels and 
have not love I am become as sounding brass, 
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the 
' gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 
and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith 
so that I could remove mountains, and have not 
love I am nothing. And though I bestow all 
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give 
my body to be burned, and have not love \i. e, 
love for others] it profiteth me nothing." Love 
for souls cannot be acquired by your own inde- 
pendent agency, nor can it in this way be in- 
creased. But you have no reason to be disheart- 
ened or discouraged on this account, for it is one 
of the graces of the Spirit, and if a grace of the 
Spirit it can be obtained by prayer. Still you 
yourself have a part to perform in increasing it. 
It is only when we co-operate with the Holy 
Spirit in his actings that He keeps the Christian 
graces alive in our souls. If you are conscious 
of great defect in your pity for the perishing, 
and if this greatly grieves you, how encouraging 



22 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

to know that the blessed Spirit has power to in- 
crease the grace within you, that it is His office 
to do so, and that He will certainly cause it to 
grow in answer to importunate prayer. 

We cannot, as was said, exercise the feeling of 
compassion for the perishing, even in the faint- 
est degree, independently of the Holy Spirit. 
He excites this feeling in the hearts of Christ- 
ians. He also is that Person of the blessed 
Trinity who new creates or regenerates those 
who stand in such need of our Christian pity. 
This is His office and in fulfilling it He is con- 
stantly active. Perhaps an hour does not pass 
in which He is not in many parts of our world, 
calling some souls, dead in trespasses and sins, to 
life. So that while we may well grieve to think 
that such vast numbers are constantly dying in 
their sins, we have cause for the greatest grati- 
tude and joy in knowing that very many are 
daily, by divine power, created anew and saved. 
For only divine and infinite power can regenerate 
a soul. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FOR CHRISTIANS TO BE DEFICIENT IN LOVE FOR 
SOULS IS A GREAT SIN. 

GOD would still have been just and holy and 
good; had he never loved sinners or shown 
mercy to them. Kindness to sinners, the exercise 
of mercy to transgressors, is with God entirely 
optional ; in other words, while transgression of 
law mtcsth^ visited with retribution; while the 
exercise of justice is necessary, it is by no means 
a matter of course that God will show mercy to 
those who sin. The relation, however, in which 
the redeemed stand to the unrenewed and im- 
penitent, is entirely different from that which God 
sustains to them. It is important that we should 
see and constantly remember that to be con- 
tented to have men live and die in sin, that to 
feel no uneasiness on account of the condition of 
those in danger of destruction so terrible as this ; 
uneasiness strong enough to rouse us to exer- 
tion in their behalf, is shameful and wicked. 

23 



24 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



Though no ransomed child of God can be en- 
tirely destitute of anxiety for souls in danger of 
being lost, yet even God's own people have need 
of greater compassion for them than they pos- 
sess. There is no greater proof that our sancti- 
fication is incomplete, that we are far from being 
perfect, than that comparatively trifling causes 
will awaken our liveliest concern, while we can 
contemplate the spiritual misery and destruction 
of a large part of our race with but little emotion. 
We see innumerable companies of our fellow-men 
in many parts of the world in such awful misery 
(wretched here and certain to perish forever), 
that we are constrained to feel that it would be 
better for them not to have existed. And yet it 
is with composure and stillness of mind that we 
contemplate their condition. Alas ! how fearful 
must be the perversion of our nature from that 
which was its original state. 

Touching this sin of having such little pity 
for the perishing, what ought you to do ? In 
the first place you should repent of it just as you 
repent of your other sins. And in order that 
your repentance may be thorough, seek to ob- 
tain a clear perception of your deficiency as to 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 25 

this holy feeling. Watch yourself. Notice how 
cold and unfeeling you are to the multitude 
around you who are condemned by God*s holy 
law — the multitude whom you meet in the streets 
and in your travels, and who throng the marts 
of business. Think of the little Christian anxiety 
you feel for your unconverted relatives. And 
when you become deeply sensible of your apathy 
and of your want of Christian pity for the spir- 
itually blind and unconverted, let repentance for 
this sin, as for your other sins, be enkindled. 
And when your feelings of penitence are awak- 
ened, make confession of your sin to God. 
You are accustomed to tell Jesus your griefs. 
Let this be one of the burdens which you make 
known to Him. Tell Him that it afflicts you that 
you are so insensible to the condition of those, 
who, you are sure, are not of the number of his 
people, and so are in danger of being lost. And 
to confession add reformation. At least, make 
use of all the means you can think of to remove 
your apathy, and soften your heart, and cause 
you to feel more for the unconverted and to be 
more anxious about them. To some Christians 
it almost seems as if this grace of the Spirit is 



26 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

that in which they are most deficient It is far 
easier for them to see (so it appears to them- 
selves) that they love God, than it is for them to 
see that they have a disinterested yearning love 
for sinners. 

It is impossible for men who feel no anxiety 
about their own spiritual condition and wants, 
to feel interested in the spiritual state of those 
around them. As, therefore, God's people are 
the only ones who are truly seeking their own 
salvation from sin, they are the only ones who 
are capable of pitying the unconverted. This is 
a fact which is well known to them. They well 
know that if they feel little or no concern for the 
spiritual and eternal welfare of those who are 
without hope, none others will, and the know- 
ledge of this must surely aggravate their sin of 
not loving perishing souls. It is a great sin not 
to have the least love for souls. Those, who are 
not God's people, are totally destitute of this 
love, and we have said that they are incapable 
of having it. But this does not excuse them. 
They are as much bound to have pity on others 
who are going down to death as Christians, and 
their spiritual blindness to the lost condition and 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



27 



to the wants of other men (which blindness alone 
closes their hearts against this pity), this blind- 
ness, we say, is itself a sin for which they will 
be judged. 



CHAPTER V. 

IF WE ARE WANTING IN PITY FOR PERISHING 
SOULS, WE SHALL SURELY NEGLECT THEM. 

TT is diflFcult for men to resist our efforts to do 
-*- them good, if we show that we love them. 
They are then overcome. Such wonderful power 
has love, that, where it is clearly seen to exist, 
and to be the only motive which actuates us, our 
efforts to persuade men to attend to their souFs 
good, will be almost certain to be successful 
They will generally yield, attend to what we 
say, consider their danger, feel their wants, and 
thus the truth applied by the Holy Spirit, and 
received and believed, will be the power of God 
to their salvation. On the other hand, let this 
love for our fellow-men be wanting, and what we 
say to them will have no effect. They will re- 
main unmoved. They will doubt whether we 
believe our own assertions. Love is necessary. 

But not only is this love or pity necessary be- 
fore our efforts can prevail — it is even necessary 
28 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 29 

in order that we may be capable of putting forth 
effort. We shall inevitably neglect souls if we 
do not pity them. This all experience proves. 
For centuries, the Church did almost nothing to 
save the perishing heathen. And it is easy to 
see that this inactivity was accompanied by the 
absence of all feeling for them. Indeed, the 
Churches having no pity on the dying heathen 
was even the cause of her neglecting them. 
What is true of the Church is true of individual 
Christians. If you are doing but little for the 
salvation of your fellow-men, it is because you 
have little feeling for them. To bestir ourselves 
for the salvation of souls merely from the stress 
of conscience, and when we do not love them, is 
up-hill work. Indeed, to persevere long in such 
activity impelled simply by the goadings of con- 
science, is impossible. Some whom we may en- 
deavour to save may be ignorant ; others may be 
very careless and even indifferent to divine 
things ; others may be hardened ; but whatever 
may be the state of mind of those whom we 
seek to rescue from their perilous condition, our 
efforts, if not sustained by love, will be short- 
lived. Rest assured that, if you do not love 
souls, you will neglect them. 



30 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

And if they are neglected, they must perish. 
When our blessed Saviour was in this world, He 
knew that if souls were neglected they must 
perish, and therefore, although often, if not al- 
ways weary, and although opposed in every way 
in their power by wicked men and by the Prince 
of darkness. He incessantly laboured to instruct 
the multitudes around him. Our blessed Lord 
did not desist when exertions began to be pain- 
ful. After going about all the villages and the 
cities teaching in their synagogues, preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all man- 
ner of disease and all manner of sickness, thus 
exerting Himself to weariness. He saw still others 
— multitudes, who were as sheep not having a 
shepherd, and when He saw them He was moved 
with compassion for them, and He began to 
teach them many things. His beginning to 
teach them without delay showed what He reck- 
oned their most urgent want, It is because 
souls must be lost if they are neglected, that our 
Saviour commands us to be incessantly praying 
for more labourers, and this is the reason why, 
just as He was about to ascend. He commanded 
His church to go into all the world and preach 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 3 1 

the gospel to every creature. It is the knowl- 
edge of this fact that will ever keep many Chris- 
tians active in efforts to multiply copies of the 
Bible, and to sustain schools and teachers and 
workers m all parts of the harvest field. 

Many a thoughtless sinner has only been 
saved through prayers and faithful efforts in his 
behalf, persevered in for many years. Efforts 
less persistent in behalf of these thoughtless ones, 
and less patient, would not have availed. But 
others have been, during almost their whole 
lives, not thoughtless, but near to the kingdom 
of God, and these, humanly speaking, might 
easily have been saved had they not been entirely 
neglected; and no other cause can account 
for their being neglected except that no one 
pitied them. 

We should desire and pray that God in His 
holy Providence would bring us to know the in- 
ward anxieties and perplexities of convicted 
souls with whom we may be brought in con- 
tact, and would incline us to seek to do them 
good instead of neglecting them. For doubt- 
less we are often in company with persons who 
are secretly under deep conviction, and with 



32 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

whom the Holy Spirit is striving, and who 
would be glad to have us speak to them about 
their soul's welfare. 

Even those who are known to have much 
compassion on their unconverted fellow-men, 
and to be engaged in unwearied labours for the 
eternal good of such men, are at times charge- 
able with want of faithfulness. How certain it 
is then that they will be negligent of their duty 
to souls who have little or no pity on them. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WE FAIL TO FULFIL ONE OF THE ENDS OF OUR 
CONTINUANCE IN THIS WORLD WHENEVER WE 
ARE WANTING IN LOVE FOR SOULS. 

TV TOST men live without having God in their 
-^^-^ thoughts. ^ They live, indeed, as if there 
was no God. They care nothing about knowing 
what His will is with respect to them. They 
never ask themselves why he created them, or 
what his purpose is in bestowing those blessings 
upon them which they enjoy, or what object He 
has in view in keeping them in the world. The 
Christian was also himself formerly chargeable 
with this folly, but it is not so with him now. 
Christians, however, are not all alike as to this. 
Some even among them reflect too little upon 
the reason why they are continued in the world. 
Our Heavenly Father has not revealed to us all 
the reasons why our stay here is prolonged, but 
He has made it sufficiently plain that one of the 
reasons is that we may be instrumental in saving 

^* 33 



34 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

perishing souls. Nor can it be thought strange 
or a thing to be wondered at, when it is consid- 
ered that it was for this that Christ came into the 
world and Hved and suffered and died and rose 
again and ascended to the right hand of God. He 
came not to condemn the world but that the 
world through Him might be saved. It is for this 
that the Eternal Spirit is sent among men. " It 
was for this that God instituted His church and 
His ministry, and proclaimed an amnesty, and 
committed to His ministry the word of reconcil- 
iation. The gifts of God in nature and in Prov- 
idence; all the dispensations of God in the gov- 
ernment of nations and constitution of society — 
all have reference to this one end. He is not 
willing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance and life eternal. This is on 
the very face of Scripture." The salvation of 
men through the gospel then is the business of 
Christians on earth. It is the chief thing for 
which they are continued here, and are kept 
away from their Father's house, and joy, and 
glory in heaven. 

This is a very precious and glorious end to 
live for. When a soul is saved, it is snatched 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



35 



from an eternity of sin and misery towards which 
it was rapidly moving. Besides this, it has the 
lost image of God restored to it — it is made 
holy. It begins to conform to the end for which 
it was created. It is preserved by the power of 
God from relapsing into spiritual death, and 
when it leaves the world it enters into the pre- 
sence of the Saviour, where it beholds His glory 
and becomes like Him. On account then of what 
souls gain when they are saved, it is a glorious 
end to live for their salvation. 

But it is also a great and exalted end to live 
for, because their salvation glorifies God. In 
President Edwards' dissertation on "The End 
for which God created the World," he brings 
forward many passages of Scripture to show 
that the glory of God is the ultimate end of the 
work of Redemption. This is undoubtedly 
taught in the Scriptures, and it involves the idea 
that the actual salvation of each particular soul 
who is redeemed, has for its end (in the design 
of God), the promotion of his own glory, and 
that it really promotes it. 

There is a solemnity about this thought, 
reader, that your continuance here is prolonged 



36 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

in order that you may be the means of saving 
souls. Ponder it. Be anxious not to fail alto- 
gether in doing what your stay on earth is length- 
ened out on purpose that you may do. Seek to 
save souls, the souls you casually meet — the 
souls of your daily companions — the souls of 
your children, the souls of your servants. " Our 
children and friends and kindred may be spirit- 
ually dead, but they are human beings and have 
natural affections, and can hear and appreciate 
the voice of sympathy and love. They can easily 
tell whether you care for their souls or not.'* 

Help to rescue the souls whom Christ's faith- 
ful labourers are seeking to recover — some ot 
them near, some afar off. There are various 
ways of exerting ourselves to save men. We 
may exert ourselves by praying for them, by 
using indirect means to bring them under the 
influence of the truth, by countenancing and 
helping on the organized efforts and public move- 
ments of God's people, which have for their aim 
the extension of Christ's kingdom, by doing all 
in our power to increase the number of labourers 
and by direct personal appeals. Will it not be 
lamentable if you leave this world, after remain- 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 37 

ing in it for years, without fulfilling the end (that 
of saving souls) which God had in view in keep- 
ing you here so long. If you entirely come 
short here you will also fail in fulfilling all other 
designs contemplated in the continuance of your 
lives, for God has other reasons for keeping us 
on earth which he has not revealed to us. We 
should be happy in the consciousness of fulfilling 
the end of our existence, whatever it may be. 
We cannot be strangers to happiness, and hap- 
piness of an exalted nature, while we are striving 
to save souls in God's appointed ways. God 
does not require us to passively contemplate 
the spiritual misery which our fellow-men are in, 
without exerting ourselves to rescue them, and 
no exertion, — no activity, is so fitted to give 
happiness as that by which souls are won. 



CHAPTER VII. 

IT SHOULD DEEPLY AFFECT OUR HEARTS. AND 
MAKE US MORE ACTIVE IN THE WORK OF 
SAVING SOULS, THAT GOD HIMSELF SEEKS TO 
SAVE THEM. 

TT was not owing to their agonizing solicitude 
^ — it was not owing to their despairing cry for 
help, that God devised the plan by which sin- 
ners may be saved. He was moved to send His 
Son by His own pity for them, and that even 
when He saw their enmity to Him ; yes, by love 
" welling up and pouring forth from His heart.*' 
And having, at an infinite cost to Himself, pro- 
vided a way by which His enemies may be saved 
and at the same time all the demands of the law 
be satisfied. He gives still further proof of His 
longing to save them by earnestly pleading with 
them and tenderly remonstrating with their rash- 
ness. *^ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? 
How shall I deliver thee, Israel ? How shall I 
make thee as Admah ? How shall I set thee as 

38 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



39 



Zeboim ? Mine heart is turned within me ; my 
repentings are kindled together." The same 
mingled earnestness and compassion pervade all 
his appeals, however varied in form. '' Come 
now, and let us reason together : though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." " As I live, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live." " I, even I, am He that 
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own 
sake, and I will not remember thy sin." '' Look 
unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the 
earth; for I am God and there is none else." 
" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls." " Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with 
the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plen- 
teous redemption." ^' And the Spirit and the 
Bride say, come ; and let him that heareth say, 
come. And let him that is athirst, come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." Even the impenitent cannot read their 



40 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

Bibles without being convinced that God is un- 
willing that they should perish — that He com- 
passionately and sincerely desires their salva- 
tion. In their inmost hearts they do believe 
that the merciful Saviour came to seek and to 
save that which was lost, and they are unable to 
hide from themselves why they shut their ears 
against the solemn warnings and the pathetic 
invitations of the gospel, that it is because they 
love darkness rather than light. They know 
that God's sincerity is evinced by His command- 
ing every minister to offer salvation to all men 
without exception, and even to beseech sinners 
not to despise the offer, nor to put off accepting 
it till a more convenient season. And they 
know that these ambassadors of Christ are guilty 
of unfaithfulness for which they must give ac- 
count, unless they warn sinners of the danger 
which they are in of being forever forsaken by 
the Holy Spirit. 

It should profoundly affect our hearts that 
God himself so earnestly seeks the salvation 
of lost sinners, and we should deeply feel that 
if we have not a portion of the same love 
for perishing souls, we cannot be God's chil- 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 41 

dren. In regard to pity for the rejecters of 
Christ, we find that all the Apostles were like 
their Master. " For many walk/' says one of 
these tender-hearted servants of Jesus, " of whom 
I have told you often, and now tell you even 
weeping that they are the enemies of the Cross 
of Christ;^ 

We have said that we, whose duty it is to seek 
the salvation of souls, should notice and be 
deeply impressed by the fact that God himself 
seeks to save them. Among those whom he 
seeks to save, are little children. Yes; he 
speaks of them, and says : " Suffer the little 
children to come unto me.*' Here God com- 
mands us to have something of the same earnest 
desire for the salvation of children which He him- 
self has. He enjoins it upon us to strive to be 
instrumental in their salvation, and he gives us 
to understand that our efforts shall not be in 
vain, by adding that little ones are heirs and 
partakers of glory. As for the children of the 
Church, whenever they grow up in sin and per- 
ish, it is just in consequence of unfaithfulness 
and neglect on the part of parents and the 
church. The covenant promise to believing 



42 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

fathers and mothers, and to the church, with 
reference to the little ones is, that if they will 
with faith train them up for God, they shall be 
saved. God has promised this in His Word, 
and how evidently does it show that He seeks 
the salvation of the children. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH SINCERE LOVE FOR 
SOULS WILL MANIFEST ITSELF. 

TN the first place it will constrain you to pray 
-*- for them ; for your unconverted relatives, and 
also for all dependent on you. Not for these 
alone, however, will love, if it is deep and strong 
in your heart constrain you to intercede. You 
will be urged on to supplicate for all classes of 
your needy fellow-men. You will pray for the 
deliverance of the multitudes of totally-forgotten 
ones living in Christian lands, from destructive 
ignorance and neglect; for the unconverted 
youth in our schools and colleges and other 
literary institutions; for the countless millions 
of perishing souls in India, China, Japan, Bur- 
mah, Siam; for the vast numbers composing 
the numerous tribes of Africa, and for the 
heathen inhabiting the islands of the sea; for 
the millions of wretched Mohammedans; for 
the cast-off Jews, and for the multitudes who 

43 



44 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

are the slaves of Romish superstition and 
ignorance. You will pity and pray for the mul- 
titudes living in the full blaze of gospel light, 
knowing enough truth to be saved but who are 
daily resisting the Holy Spirit and rejecting 
Christ; and for the swarms of poor, sunken, 
neglected men, women and children pent up in 
the worst and vilest parts of our cities. You 
will often think of and intercede for the forgot- 
ten and roughly treated sailors of every nation, 
for the hosts of uncared for soldiers composing 
the standing armies of the world, and for all 
prisoners. If you are passing your days without 
prayer offered for any of these classes of dying 
men, can your love for souls be genuine ? You 
supplicate God for a perishing world indirectly, 
but in a way which is acceptable to the Saviour 
when you pray for God's blessing on all the la- 
bours of all ministers, teachers, godly writers, 
translators of the Bible, Bible readers, tract dis- 
tributors. When you pray for the increase of 
the holiness and spiritual power of the church, 
and for her rapid growth in numbers, that is the 
same as praying for the salvation of unrenewed 
and godless men. It is also true that you pray 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 45 

for the perishing when you ask that the church 
as organized, may be assisted to fulfil her mis- 
sion to establish Christ's gospel in every land 
under heaven. 

Another effect of much love for souls will be 
seen in our not permitting ourselves to be ignor- 
ant of the church's work, and of the state of 
Christ's cause in the world — in our using on the 
contrary the sources of information which are 
now so abundant, in order to increase our know- 
ledge concerning it. The sources of information 
of which we speak, are the many periodicals pre- 
pared and printed for the very purpose of giv- 
ing information concerning the blessed Spirit's 
saving operations on the souls of men. No sin- 
cere lover of souls can be contented to remain 
ignorant of the intelligence touching the progress 
of Christ's kingdom which these reports convey. 
He will be thankful that they are so regularly 
published, and will read them. And how ex- 
ceedingly will his heart be gladdened as he 
notices the success of the various labours of 
Christ's servants in all lands, and of the prog- 
ress of the Holy Spirit's glorious work of regen- 
erating and sanctifying souls. The advance 



46 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

made by the church in the days of the great 
and good President Edwards was small compared 
with that which we now see she has made, and 
yet he tells us that he was animated and re- 
freshed by what he observed even in his day as 
to the progress of the Saviour^s kingdom. He 
says : " I had great longings for the advance- 
ment of Christ's kingdom in the world ; and 
my secret prayer used to be in great part, taken 
up in praying for it. If I heard the least hint 
of anything that happened, in any part of the 
world, that appeared, in some respect or other, 
to have a favourable aspect on the interests of 
Christ's kingdom, my soul eagerly catched at it, 
and it would much animate and refresh me. I 
used to be eager to read public newspapers, 
mainly for that end ; to see if I could not find 
some news favorable to the interests of reli- 
gion in the world." 

Again, an intense desire for the everlasting 
good of our fellow-men who are in danger of 
dying in their sins, will make us quick to see 
the connection between Christian giving and the 
salvation of souls, and we shall obey Christ's 
command to give as God prospers us. The work 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 47 

which the church has to perform in spreading 
the knowledge of Christ, cannot be accomplished 
without continual outlays of large sums of 
money. Knowing this, we shall wish and strive 
to give liberally, and that during our whole 
lives. As those who by the unmerited kind- 
ness of God have become members of the 
church of Christ, and identified with her, we 
shall long to behold the church pouring out ot 
her means abundantly into the treasury of the 
Lord. There are two motives which should in- 
fluence us to be liberal givers. One is love and 
gratitude to Christ who, when He was rich, for 
our sakes became poor, that we, through His 
poverty, might be rich. The other is pity for 
dying souls. The first of these motives is with 
all disciples of the Saviour the superior one, but 
the last should of itself be felt by all of them 
to have exceeding great power. 

Another effect of overmastering love for souls 
will be to make us willing that God should 
place us in His providence in that position in life 
and give us that work to do which will be the 
best for the spiritual good of those around us. 
If we care nothing about the spiritual condition 



48 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

of our fellow-men, we shall crave that social 
position which can only gratify pride or selfish- 
ness or ambition. We shall also choose that 
employment which will be most likely to make 
us the possessors of wealth or worldly influence. 
Whereas, if we have that love for Christ and for 
souls which every Christian ought to have, we 
shall ask that both our position and our occupa- 
tion in life may be such as will enable us most 
effectually to do good to needy souls. 

Again we shall be anxious, if love for souls is 
strong in our hearts, to have the truth prevail in 
its purity, since by every wide departure from 
the truth, the salvation of men is imperilled. 
God is glorified when the truth prevails, when it 
is embraced and loved, and this is the chief rea- 
son why His servants desire and seek its promo- 
tion. But they are also anxious for its preva- 
lence, because its prevalence and triumph are 
necessary for the good of men. Error, on the 
contrary, is always harmful. It never can, un- 
der any circumstances, produce the effect of 
truth. Many false inferences drawn from the 
facts of science are relied on by a certain class 
to bring discredit on revealed truth, and by their 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



49 



teachings not a few are perverted. That men 
are not responsible for their belief — that they 
are not indeed responsible for their bad actions, 
because they are all the creatures of circum- 
stances, all being in character just what the 
things around them necessitate them to be; 
that vice is no otherwise vice than as it is judged 
to be such as the result of education, and that 
there is no punishment after death — these and a 
multitude of other falsehoods are working the 
death of many, and true lovers of souls must 
and will be afflicted to see what havoc and deso- 
lation they are causing. Not only this, but the 
friends of God and man will count it a joy to be 
used by the Saviour to stay in any degree the 
progress of such deadly errors in the world. 

In the next place, when we are afflicted, and 
look about us in our affliction to see what com- 
pensation God is giving us, v/e shall feel that in 
the good we are doing to souls by our prayers 
and efforts, we have our greatest compensation. 
When a child of God sincerely tries to benefit 
souls, he is guilty of sinful unbelief if he persists 
in thinking that his efforts are entirely unsuccess- 
ful. He should believe and know that his labour 

3 



50 ■ LOVE FOR SOULS. 

is not in vain in the Lord. And in times when 
he is bowed under burdens and griefs, he should 
feel that if his heavenly Father does not see fit 
to remove his afflictions, he is more than com- 
pensated in being permitted to be helpful to 
others, in being permitted, by means of his 
prayerful efforts, to gratify his longings for the 
good of souls. 

Another effect of much love for souls will be 
witnessed in our trying to avoid in speech and 
behaviour everything which might injure those 
in whose society we are occasionally or fre- 
quently thrown. We shall even often seek, by 
what we say, to do them good. There is much 
instruction and admonition given us as to this, 
in the Bible. And no wonder; for we are con- 
stantly benefiting or injuring those whom we 
associate with, whether we will it or not. Our 
words, our manner, and our character, are al- 
ways influencing them for good or evil. The 
Scriptures recognize this truth, and so they ad- 
monish us to give heed to what we say in the 
hearing of men, and to how we act in their 
presence. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, 
the Apostle forbids corrupt conversation, enjoin- 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 51 

ing profitable discourse, and assigns as one of 
the motives the good of others. '' Let no cor- 
rupt communication proceed out of your mouth, 
but that which is good to the use of edifying 
that it may minister grace unto the hearers." 
" Neither filthiness nor foohsh talking," says he, 
in the fourth verse of the fifth chapter, '*nor 
jesting which are not convenient." And He ex- 
horts us not to be weary in well doing, but as 
we have opportunity to do good unto all men. 
When one is born of God, the spirit of love 
springs up in his heart never to die — love to 
God and also love to souls. It should be our 
earnest desire to do good like the light, in a 
silent but effectual way, every day of our lives. 
We should not often come in contact with an 
impenitent friend without sometimes giving ut- 
terance, in an earnest manner, to holy desires for 
his everlasting good. Our conscience should be 
quick to reproach us whenever there is reason 
to fear that we have said, in the hearing of our 
neighbour, anything which may possibly en- 
courage his carelessness about his salvation, or 
lead him to feel at ease in his unconverted state. 
While those who pity souls will be impelled to 



52 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 



labour for them by the thought of their spiritual 
necessities, they will also be actuated in their 
efforts by tender and unquenchable love for the 
Saviour, and by a longing to make some returns 
to Him for what He has done and suffered for 
them. They will long to bring others under the 
same obligations to the Saviour which they are 
under. Still, the more they deny themselves 
for the spiritual welfare of their fellow-men, the 
warmer will be their love for tkeniy and the less 
will they make of the self-denying efforts which 
that love may prompt them to put forth. The 
labours, which seekers after fame and wealth 
have undergone, and the dangers which they 
have cheerfully encountered in pursuing the 
objects they so much desired, have often and 
properly been brought forward to stimulate to 
great exertions those who profess to have com- 
passion on perishing souls. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FAITHFULNESS TO PERISHING SOULS WILL CON- 
STRAIN US TO TELL THEM PAINFUL AS WELL 
AS COMFORTING TRUTHS. 

HAD Adam remained in his original condi- 
tion, he would have gone on increasing in 
knowledge forever, and no truth upon his dis- 
covery of it would either have been viewed by 
him with aversion or have awakened within him 
any painful fears or uneasiness. No new dis- 
covered truth can ever cause any anxiety or pain 
to the inhabitants of heaven. But it is not so 
with sinners who, although they remain impeni- 
tent, persist in hoping that they will become 
Christians before they die. These discover 
truths in the Bible which they look upon with 
strong repugnance. The teachings of the Bible 
which are unpalatable to unrenewed men and 
which they will ever dislike, are those which tend 
to humble human pride — those which assert 
man's utter unworthiness in the sight of God 

53 



54 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

and his entire helplessness. You may easily get 
men to receive opinions upon superficial evi- 
dence. You may also insinuate into their minds 
the belief of great absurdities, but to obtain their 
hearty assent to those truths of God's word 
which uniformly lay their pride in the dust is, to 
unaided human effort, a hopeless task. Never- 
theless, in obedience to God's command to keep 
back nothing which it is profitable for the sinner 
to know, and in reliance upon the divine promise 
to make the Word effectual, the religious teacher 
will not shun to declare unto the despisers of the 
Gospel the whole counsel of God. Besides those 
doctrines of grace which mortify pride, there are 
truths which are fitted to alarm and pain the 
sinner. They are those which can not be 
seriously attended to without awakening the 
conscience. Very few men have their conscience 
entirely seared. There are times when the con- 
sciences of most sinners are aroused into un- 
wonted activity. They are forced to see with 
alarm at times how grievously they neglect duty 
and how terribly they fail to be conformed to 
the demands of God's strict but righteous law. 
Sometimes the truth shines in upon the sinner's 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 55 

conscience with such reveaHng power as to 
awaken agonizing remorse and a fearful looking 
for of judgment and fiery indignation. Now 
there are many careless ones of whom it is es- 
pecially true that they can never be brought to 
flee to the ark of safety until their consciences 
and their fears are thus awakened, and no reluc- 
tance to give them pain should ever hinder 
Christ's ambassadors from awakening their fears 
and causing them the distress which it is neces- 
sary they should feel before they can be induced 
to seek their soul's salvation. 

There are truths which are unwelcome also to 
all self-indulgent and worldly Christians. They 
are those which teach that the religion of Christ 
is a religion of self-denial. Such declarations 
and teachings of God's Word, are in direct op- 
position to the views of those professors of 
religion who suppose that there are few obstruc- 
tions in the way that leads to life, and that 
heaven is easily gained. Indulgences, which, if 
the Bible was carefully studied, would be plainly 
seen to be hindrances to a life of godliness are 
considered by many to be harmless and they do 
not like to hear what might change their views. 



56 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

The thought of being forced by the clear exhi- 
bition of the truth to admit their inconsistency 
and sin in hving as they do is well nigh intoler- 
able. They are, however, not faithfully dealt 
with unless the requirements of the Gospel are 
plainly set before them. Another class of truths 
which it is not agreeable to many to hear are 
those which teach that persons who enjoy gospel 
privileges should co-operate to the extent of their 
opportunity and ability with faithful labourers in 
conveying a knowledge of the Gospel to others. 
Many professing Christians seem to be almost 
entirely inactive in the service of the Redeemer. 
They contribute but little compared with what' 
they might easily contribute to help on the 
Saviour's cause. They have never uttered any 
words of admonition or exhortation or encour- 
agement to those who have need of them. It 
does not seem as if they were identified in the 
least with the great agencies employed by the 
Church to advance the Saviour's kingdom. They 
stand aloof from all the departments of Christian 
activity which are a characteristic of our time. 
It is painful to this class to be told their duty 
and to be exhorted to perform it. Nor is it 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 57 

pleasant for any one to urge them on to a life of 
greater activity and usefulness in Christ's service. 
Nevertheless, they who love their souls and are 
faithful to them, will feel constrained to hold up 
the truth to them. They will speak the truth in 
love, but they will not fail to utter it. Here it 
is to be feared that the pulpit is greatly at fault, 
and that this is one of the reasons why there is 
such little renunciation of the world for Christ. 



CHAPTER X. 

SOME OF THE REASONS WHY TRUE CHRISTIANS 
PUT FORTH SUCH LITTLE EFFORT TO SAVE 
PERISHING SOULS. 

A TANY are naturally contemplative, and this 
trait predominates in their piety. It dis- 
poses them to love quiet and to live much in 
seclusion, and it constitutes a difficulty in the 
way of their performing labours which bear on 
the conversion of their fellow-men, a difficulty 
which they often do not sufficiently try to over- 
come. Shrinking from observation they often 
culpably neglect the performance of many duties 
which tend to promote the spiritual good of 
others. 

There are others who would rejoice at any 
time to behold multitudes coming to Christ, but 
who nevertheless sadly fail to exert themselves 
to bring the unconverted to Him, and the reason 
is because they have delayed to acquire the 
habit of thus exerting themselves. For though 

58 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 59 

love for men, and a desire for their salvation 
may exist in the heart of a Christian, it will not 
constantly incite him to efforts to win souls until 
by continuing for a time to be active in the 
work, he has at last obtained the habit of being 
active in it. 

It will be observed that we are not assigning 
reasons why all who profess to be disciples of 
Christ do not endeavour to save their fellow- 
men, but why they do not exert themselves more 
for that purpose who do truly love Jesus, and 
who therefore may be supposed to have some 
compassion on the perishing. 

While the reasons above given may explain 
the thing in part, they do not constitute a full 
explanation. Undoubtedly the principal reason 
is because those truths of the Bible which re- 
late to the condition and wants of the soul are 
only half believed by God's people. The Bible 
declares that it comes into existence condemned 
to eternal death by God's holy law, and totally 
depraved. The death to which it is condemned 
it must certainly suffer unless all the law's de- 
mands are fully satisfied in its behalf. Should 
it leave the world before the sentence of con 



6o LOVE FOR SOULS, 

demnation is removed it will be forever too late. 
A little longer refusal of the rebellious soul to 
comply with the gospel call, a little longer re- 
sistance of the Holy Spirit, and it is forever lost, 
is cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be 
quenched, where their worm dieth not and the 
fire is not quenched. When these truths are 
profoundly believed, when there is a realizing 
and absorbing persuasion of their reality it 
awakens an intense pity for unrenewed sinners 
— a pity which arouses to great exertion in their 
behalf, a pity which has many a time so inflamed 
believers to action as to make them instrumental 
in the conversion of many. The power of those 
who are renowned for their success in winning 
souls is in that love for the perishing which is 
born of their belief in the things of which we 
have spoken. These truths live in these men 
as mighty forces. But many Christians only 
half believe them — have but an imperfect con- 
viction of their reality and awfulness — one 
which is greatly wanting in depth and thorough- 
ness. 

It would seem, moreover, as if believers — yes, 
even believers, are in a great degree blind to 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 6l 

the blessedness and glory which become the 
possession of every one who is saved. It is im- 
possible to have a very strong relish for worldly 
pleasures and pursuits, and at the same time be 
much alive to the beauty of holiness and to the 
excellence of those heavenly treasures which 
Christ has purchased for believing sinners, and 
which He freely bestows on them. But many 
true Christians are very worldly, and set their 
affections strongly on things on the earth, and 
they are as a consequence too indifferent even to 
their own privileges and to their own heavenly 
inheritance. Is it to be wondered at then that 
they fail to realize the misery of those who are 
utterly destitute of these blessings, and how in- 
finitely important it is that such poor souls 
should obtain them? 

Perhaps many Christians underrate their 
power to impress and influence for good the 
minds of their fellow-men, especially if those, 
whom they would gladly benefit, are their supe- 
riors. 

Whatever causes. Christian reader, may hither- 
to have had power to lead you to neglect your 
duty (if you have neglected it) it is not necessary 



62 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

that you should continue to be influenced by 
them. There is no hindrance in the way of 
doing for your fellow-men what Christ calls you 
to do for them, which may not be overcome. 
No longer neglect to engage in the blessed em- 
ployment of seeking to save souls. But while 
you are working in various ways to accomplish 
this, it is important that you should wear a cheer- 
ful aspect. Be discreet and wise. It is true that 
the larger part of the dwellers on earth are per- 
ishing, and that the thought of this is dreadful, 
but you will not be fitted to save any of them if 
you wear an aspect of gloom. It is right to 
contemplate the unhappy state of the multitude, 
and to be deeply affected by the thought of 
their lost condition, and it is also true that the 
least degree of levity, or want of tenderness, 
while engaged in the work, would be shocking ; 
nevertheless, the very consciousness of sincerely 
desiring and seeking to bless those whom Christ 
came to save is fitted to cause cheerfulness and 
peace. Besides, the absolute certainty that the 
infinite Spirit of God is daily carrying on His 
work of regenerating souls ought not to fail to 
awaken joy. 



CHAPTER XL 

REAL LOVE FOR SOULS WILL MAKE US ANXIOUS 
THAT PROFESSED CONVERSIONS SHOULD IN 
ALL CASES BE GENUINE. 

'T^HE Church of Christ embraces many de- 
-*- nominations. The number of those who, 
hoping that they have become behevers in Jesus, 
join themselves to these denominations, varies 
greatly from year to year, but not a year passes in 
which the churches of each of them are not en- 
larged by the addition of multitudes. It is as- 
tonishing that such little fear is expressed on the 
part of church officers and private Christians, lest 
a large portion of the newly-added professors may 
be deceiving themselves, seeing it is well under- 
stood that in all ages multitudes, with no inten- 
tion of appearing what they are not, join the 
church without experiencing the new birth, 
without a particle of faith in Christ, and who 
at last perish. That instances of self-deception 
are frequent is evident from the many warnings 

63 



64 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

against it contained in the Apostolic writings, 
from the alarming declarations of Christ, and 
from the facts recorded in the New Testament. 
Dr. Archibald Alexander, speaking of the great 
numbers who have not attained a comfortable 
assurance of the goodness of their spiritual con- 
dition, says : *' In dealing with professors trou- 
bled with doubts, we are too apt to proceed on 
the assumed principle that, notwithstanding their 
sad misgivings and fears, they are sincere Chris- 
tians, and have the root of the matter in them ; 
while in regard to many this may be an entire 
mistake, and we are in danger of cherishing in 
them a fatal delusion. Here the skill and fidel- 
ity of the spiritual watchmen are put to the test; 
and while they should not deviate a hair's, 
breadth from the rule of the divine word, it is 
better that the pious Christian should suffer 
some unnecessary pain than that the false pro- 
fessor should be bolstered up with delusive 
hopes. I must say, therefore, that the true rea- 
son why many professors have no comfortable 
evidence of their religion, is because they have 
none. They have never experienced the new 
birth, and being still dead in trespasses and sins, 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 65 

it is no wonder that they cannot find in them- 
selves what does not exist." 

The more we love souls, the more shall we 
be pained to know that many are constantly de- 
ceived about their own spiritual state. The con- 
dition of such in eternity is much worse than if 
they had made no profession of piety in this life. 
And no greater burden has ever weighed upon 
the church than that of having in her midst un- 
converted professors. Satan's kingdom is not 
weakened when persons, mistakenly supposing 
that they have been brought out of his kingdom, 
proceed to unite themselves with the visible 
Church of Christ. On the contrary, the empire 
of the adversary is thereby strengthened. 

It is not strange that many conversions are 
spurious, for the heart of man is very treacher- 
ous. Men are easily deceived, and therefore 
there is constant danger of persons regarding 
themselves as Christians who have never been 
the subject of the Spirit's saving work. Is there 
no way of remedying this evil ? Can it not at 
least, be greatly lessened? If love for souls 
possessed us in a greater degree, would not that 
love be quick to devise and use means which 



66 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

would be successful in greatly diminishing the 
number of the self-deceived? Let the following 
means be employed, and we cannot but think 
that cases of delusion, and of the indulgence ot 
false hopes, would be less frequent than they are. 
In the first place, let all Christians bring the 
cause of their solicitude to God, and entreat Him 
to prevent so great an evil from happening to 
the unconverted. Yes ; impelled by earnest 
longings (called forth by pity for endangered 
souls), that there should be no spurious conver- 
sions, let us, with reference to this thing, cry 
incessantly unto God, who has the hearts of all 
men in His hands. No one who believes that 
God governs all His creatures, and all their ac- 
tions, can doubt that He is able to answer this 
petition with infinite ease. The longer we per- 
severe in offering this request, the more shall we 
wonder that it has been so seldom offered. It 
will be impossible for us to doubt that there 
would have been, in all times past, far fewer in- 
stances of self deception, had God's people more 
earnestly besought Him to avert the danger. In 
the second place, let ministers have more to say 
on the following points: i. The danger itself. 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 6j 

The fact that miUions have perished who hoped 
that they were Christians, and were on the way 
to heaven. 2. The nature of true rehgion, show- 
ing that it cannot exist where there is ignorance 
or rejection of fundamental truth, that it does 
not consist of forms, and that it cannot be sepa- 
rated from morahty. 3. The importance of 
counting the cost of being a disciple of Christ. 
4. The deceitfulness of the heart. 5. The arts, 
the machinations, the malice, and the activity of 
Satan and of his hosts of subordinate evil 
spirits. 6. The strictness of God's law, and the 
wonderful extent of its demands, while yet all 
its demands are reasonable and just. 7. The 
true gospel method of salvation. 8. The evils 
and mistakes which are apt to accompany and 
grow out of revivals of religion. 9. The value 
of a practical belief on the part of parents and 
the church in God's covenant promise to bless 
and save the children of His people — by which 
practical belief we mean such a belief in God's 
covenant promise as will lead to faithful atten- 
tion to the children from their earliest years. 
One who, in childhood and youth, is assiduously 
and thoroughly instructed, trained, and prayed 



68 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

for, is less likely to be deluded to his destruction 
by the hope of the hypocrite. 

Not only ministers of the Gospel, but elders 
and even private Christians might do much by 
their prayers, and by their efforts to diffuse saving 
knowledge to prevent poor souls from practising 
deception on themselves, and from professing to 
be Christians while in an unconverted state. 

Nothing can be so effectual in leading God's 
people to labor and pray against the prevalence 
of self deception in the church, as love for souls. 
It is so dreadful to be deceived ! It is to be 
feared that self-deluded church members are 
rarely converted. Ministers and elders too often 
act as if they considered their duty to professors 
of religion wholly discharged when they have 
admitted them to communion. They do not 
sufficiently visit, watch over, encourage, warn, 
instruct, guide, and pray with those whom they 
may have admitted with some misgivings. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THERE IS NEED OF A GREAT INCREASE OF LOVE 
FOR PERISHING SOULS, NOT ONLY IN THE 
HEARTS OF INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS, BUT IN 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AS A UNITED W^HOLE. 

npHE Church of Christ has not gone on ad- 
-*- vancing steadily from the beginning of her 
existence. While she has made progress in faith 
and holiness at times, she has at times greatly 
declined. It is our happiness to see her more 
enriched with the gifts of the Spirit than she has 
been in any time past, but she still fails to be con- 
formed to the will of Christ and she is still full 
of infirmities. Errors abound in her. Corrup- 
tions and much weakness of faith still cleave to 
her. But of all the defects which we witness in 
her, none are more prominent than her feeble 
love for souls, and yet she is not destitute of this 
love. We speak of the Church as a whole. All 
know what devoted labourers some of her mem- 
bers are, how full of compassion they are for 

69 



70 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

those who are as sheep without a shepherd, and 
how, impelled by this feeling, they are daily 
toiling to save the lost. 

It is admitted that before the coming of Christ 
the Church was more insensible to the perishing 
condition of the world than she is at present, 
and that after her first bright period — the period 
of her infancy — had passed away, long centuries 
succeeded during which she was inferior to what - 
she now is, in an expansive Christian spirit, but 
it cannot be denied that she still has but a small 
portion of that pity for the perishing which 
characterized the Master and His first followers. 

As has been said, pity for the dying prevails 
in her to some extent and it is impossible for it 
to become entirely extinct. Our longing desire 
should be that it should increase. You are not a 
Christian if you have no desire for the increase 
of the Church in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
and love for the perishing as has been shown, is 
one of his gifts. 

What is the feeling which the Church needs to 
have wrought in her by the Holy Spirit in order 
that she may be thoroughly stirred up to engage 
in the work of saving men? First, she needs to 



LOVE FOR SOULS. J I 

have wrought in her an unquenchable desire to 
obey Christ's command — a grateful and loving 
desire to be conformed to the will of the Master 
as made known to her in his parting injunction. 
But then, in the second place^ she needs that the 
Holy Spirit should increase her love for souls-^ 
her pity for men in their lost condition. That 
love for souls does not pervade the Church — the 
body of Christ, as it ought, needs no proof It 
is what every believer knows and feels. Even 
the unconverted know it. The very heathen 
when awakened to see their own misery and to 
some appreciation of the blessings which the 
Gospel alone confers, are struck with the little 
interest manifested in their condition and wants 
by God's people living in Christian lands. 
" How could you and your fathers have pos- 
sessed the knowledge of salvation for so many 
generations and yet never impart it unto us till 
now?" has been asked again and again by 
awakened and wondering heathens. '' This 
painful question has been put to the mission- 
ary with a pathos which should have touched 
the heart of the whole Church.*' 

Love for men greatly lessens many of the 



72 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

difficulties which stand in the way of benefiting 
them. It imparts wisdom, skill, perseverance, 
and patience. All these important aids to suc- 
cess in the prosecution of her work the Church 
would possess, if she only had a warmer, a more 
intense love for the destitute around her. The 
Church will never be quick to respond to the 
appeals made to her by the destitution of suffer- 
ing souls, until she loves them more. The 
Apostle was commanded by the Saviour (Acts 
xvi. 9) to leave Asia in order to preach the Gos- 
pel to the European Gentiles, but he felt that he 
was also appealed to by the wants of this people. 
And it is evident that it was the Saviour's design 
that he should feel this, as we may infer from 
the manner in which the will of Christ was com- 
municated to him. For when he was at Troas, 
on the coast of Asia, a vision appeared to him in 
the night. A man of Macedonia stood before 
him, saying, ''Come over into Macedonia, and 
help us;" that is, help us to be saved — help us 
to obtain salvation. The church of these times 
may, if she only will, hear the same call. For 
not only does the Saviour command her to help 
the destitute to be saved, but she is most affect- 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



n 



ingly appealed to for help by the very necessities 
of the starving, dying nations. And she will be 
alive to these appeals just in proportion to the 
degree in which she loves and pities those from 
whom they come. 

If the church loved the spiritual welfare of 
men as she ought she would watch over the 
souls of her own members better than she does. 
And the result of this faithfulness to her mem- 
bers would be seen in the increased holiness of 
those who really belong to her, and in the con- 
version of many self-deceived professors. 

It is in the power of believers to secure for the 
church the priceless blessing of an increase of 
this love for souls. Nothing pleases the Saviour 
so much as when His church, which He has 
purchased with His own blood, is interceded 
for by the faithful. He knows her great need 
of this gift, and He will hear your importu- 
nate entreaties that she may receive it, but 
importunate they must be, and you must also 
pray with faith. 

If Satan could have his way his kingdom 
would speedily be established on the ruins of 
that spiritual kingdom of which we are speaking, 
4 



74 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

but it is not by violence that he seeks its de- 
struction. He uses wiles, deceits, snares and 
temptations. He knows that if by these means 
he can cause the church of Christ to be con- 
formed to the world, she will decrease in holi- 
ness and lose her spiritual gifts, and among 
these, love for those whom it is her duty to 
save. Now if with unutterable longings for the 
blessing you continually and with faith pray for 
the church's deliverance from Satan's power, and 
for the overthrow of his kingdom, you will be 
doing that which will effectually bring about his 
disappointment and defeat, and which will secure 
the church's steady progress to victory. You 
will be instrumental in helping her to ''keep 
herself in the love of God" and of perishing 
souls. It is right that you should pray that 
the church of God may be more free from 
errors, and ignorance and strife ; right that 
you should ask that she may be more humble, 
prayerful, zealous, liberal and enterprising, but, 
O ! do not forget to ask that her love for souls 
may be increased. Filled with this love she 
would be fully imbued with the missionary spirit. 
She would possess a zeal in prosecuting the 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 75 

work of converting the world to Christ so en- 
lightened and so fervid, that success would 
speedily be reached. A late writer speaking 
on the subject of the speedy evangelization of 
the world says : " Probably we have 20,000,000 of 
evangelical Christians in the world. The entire 
population of the world is near 1,400,000,000, 
about 1,000,000,000 of whom have heard little 
or nothing of Christ. Given 20,000,000 of men 
and women saved and endued with the Holy 
Ghost as witnesses and heralds, possessing almost 
untold wealth and unprecedented facilities of 
travel, aided by the million-tongued press, and 
unobstructed by national barriers, what would 
hinder the thorough evangelization of the whole 
world in ten years ? 

" Let each Christian during ten years be the 
means of reaching fifty souls, or five new ones 
a year, and the work is done. The commission 
is fulfilled; our duty is done, and God will thus 
gather out of the Gentiles a people for His 
name. 

" If the enterprise involved the absolute con- 
version of the whole world, it would indeed 
seem appalling, but 'to preach the gospel to 



76 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

every creature * is neither appalling nor diffi- 
cult." 

" We only need a church separated from the 
world, consecrated to God, and concentrated 
upon this grand evangelism. We want a church 
not only converted to Christ, but to enthusiastic 
zeal in the cause of missions. We must send 
missionaries to the lukewarm in our churches to 
fire their hearts. Although we have gained 
to-day, over yesterday, we must gain far more 
to-morrow, over to-day.'' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SOME OF THE EVIDENCES WHICH, IF THEY REALLY 
EXIST, AFFORD PROOF THAT LOVE FOR SOULS 
HAS A PLACE IN THE HEART. 

\ LL true Christians bewail their feeble love for 
-^"^ souls. They long to be more like Christ, 
whose pity for lost sinners constrained Him to die 
for them. Even if they are sure that the feeling 
exists within them in some degree, it seems to 
themselves that it is as nothing compared with 
what it should be. Many are not sure that they 
have any pity for the unconverted at all, and 
that they are compelled to entertain doubts of 
it causes them no little grief The very fact of 
their having such grief, however, is some evi- 
dence that they are not entirely destitute of the 
feeling. But it is not necessary that any one 
should long remain doubtful as to the matter. 
There are tests which it is in the power of all 
to use, and by which one can know whether he 

77 



78 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

really loves souls or not. We proceed to pre- 
sent some of these tests. 

You may hope that you are not entirely with- 
out this Christian grace ; 

If whenever you hear of conversions it gives 
you sincere pleasure. For since the joy which 
angels feel whenever one sinner turns from his 
sins unto God convinces us that they love men 
and desire their everlasting happiness and bless- 
edness, why does it not afford some evidence 
that we also love souls if we are truly glad in 
our hearts every time we hear that one with grief 
and hatred of his sins has come to Jesus and 
found pardon ? 

If you find that the agencies employed in the 
world for diffusing the knowledge of salvation 
are very dear to you. For nothing could make 
them seem precious to you and keep an interest 
in them alive in your heart, except the good which 
you know results to souls from their successful 
operation. 

It is difficult to see how one can take delight 
in those who bear the Saviour's image without 
having kindness in his heart towards poor sinners, 
and without longing to see them also become the 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 79 

followers and friends of Jesus and made like 
Him. 

If you truly desire to learn how love for souls 
may be obtained, what means it is necessary to 
employ in order to increase it, and if you are wil- 
ling to use those means. 

If it causes you alarm and anxiety to witness 
the extensive prevalence of errors so hostile to 
true religion that no soul can embrace them 
and escape destruction. 

If you often have sorrow to think that although 
Jesus came to save sinners, the greater part of 
our race in consequence of the supineness and 
unfaithfulness of the Church is still unsaved, and 
that only a small proportion of the generations 
of men living at the present time can possibly 
enter heaven. If this never causes you a pang, it 
clearly proves that you are destitute of pity for 
lost souls, but if there are moments when it deeply 
afflicts you, it must be because you have this 

pity. 

If whenever you hear of the death of a godless 
sinner, it causes you grief to think that he died 
in his sins. 

If you feel such concern on account of the 



8o LOVE FOR SOULS. 

state of those of your relatives who are uncon- 
verted that you are led to pray for them with 
earnestness and importunity. For while true 
Christians embrace in their pity all their uncon- 
verted fellow-men, they cannot but be conscious 
of having a stronger feeling of pity for their im- 
penitent kindred than for others. 

If you have anxiety for the spiritual welfare 
and growth in grace of those who are already 
Christians. 

If it causes you joy to think that the Holy 
Spirit is every day regenerating great numbers 
in many parts of the world. 

If it rejoices you to think that God has ex- 
pressly commanded His people not to withhold 
the knowledge of the truth from any, but on the 
contrary, has made it their duty to communicate 
the good news to all men. It would seem as if 
the Jews of old were unwilling to have the know- 
ledge of the true religion imparted to all men, 
but this was because they had never experienced 
its power themselves, and consequently had no 
love for any who did not belong to their own 
race. Paul himself possessed this selfish wicked 
spirit until he was made a new creature. As 



LOVE FOR SOULS, gl 

soon, however, as this change took place in him, 
especially as soon as the divine glory and sweet- 
ness of Jesus were revealed to him, he rejoiced 
and exulted in the thought that the knowledge 
of Christ was not to be confined to a few, but 
that it was God*s will that it should be extended 
to people of every clime and every nation. This 
was because his heart now overflowed with 
yearning love for souls. The fact that the Gos- 
pel, with its revelation of the beauty and glory of 
Immanuel, is by God's command a Gospel for all 
men without exception, will also rejoice you if 
you have the same divine love for the souls of 
men which glowed in the Apostle's heart. 

Such are some of the evidences of the exist- 
ence in the heart of love for souls. If you find 
that they exist in your case be grateful to the 
Holy Spirit, for this feeling is a grace of which 
He and He alone is the author. But remember 
that the grace was given you to be exercised 
through active efforts to save souls. When you 
put forth such effort for the unconverted, you give 
the best of all proof that you pity them and long 
to save them. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH THE WORLD IS UNDER 
TO THOSE WHO LOVE SOULS. 

GOD is the giver of all the good, whether 
temporal or spiritual, which we enjoy, and yet 
under God the world owes much to lovers of 
souls. The instances are innumerable in which 
individuals and communities have been made 
blessed by means of their unselfish, Christlike 
exertions. The larger part of the children of 
men are needy and wretched, and in order to 
minister to their temporal and spiritual necessi- 
ties, those who love them have gladly performed, 
and are still performing, the greatest labours. 
They are toiling for this purpose in all parts of 
the world. And their toils and sacrifices are 
not only bringing blessings on those for whom 
they are directly labouring, but on those whom 
they are not directly seeking to benefit. The 
way in which they do good to their fellow-men 
(and it is the only way to do them real and 
82 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 83 

lasting good), is by making Christians of them. 
In their efforts to accomplish this, God has made 
them very successful, and thus they have ever 
been the very salt of the earth. How much the 
world owes to lovers of souls can never be 
known until the results of their benevolent la- 
bours are disclosed in eternity. The great 
Christian nations of the earth are what they are, 
in consequence of the holy lives and active la- 
bours of the lo^rs of souls whom God spares 
to the world, but far more good would have 
been done to our fallen world, had' all profess- 
ing Christians loved the perishing as they ought 
to have done. 

Aside fron^ Christian nations, consider what 
we this day witness in both civilized and uncivil- 
ized heathen lands as the result of the toils of 
that class of lovers of souls called missionaries 
of the Cross. They have covered, with hundreds 
of those living tentres of power and blessed influ- 
ence called mission stations, the great Empire of 
British India, from Cape Comorin to the Punjab, 
and up to the Himalayas. They have occupied 
many of the provinces of China, the most power- 
ful and the most populous of heathen lar^ds. 



84 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

They have labpured with the population which 
has overflowed from China into Australia and 
our own country. They have so successfully 
laboured for Christ in the island world of the 
Pacific, that whole groups of those islands are 
to-day almost entirely Christianized. They have 
carried the gospel into Burmah, Siam, Japan, and 
into the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the 
Celebes, and New Guinea. They have estab- 
lished central evangelization stations in the chief 
places of the lands of Islam, from the Balkans to 
Bagdad, and from Egypt to Persia. They have 
planted numerous Christian schools and colleges 
in Palestine, the primitive seat of Christianity. 
They have vigorously attacked Africa, west, 
south, and east, and have even powerfully 
assaulted the very heart of the dark conti- 
nent. Through their faithful efforts, *'the sun 
of the Gospel, after a long storm, has burst forth 
over Madagascar in such brightness that it can 
never again disappear." They have established 
missions in the immense plains of the Hudson's 
Bay Territory, and among the remnants of the 
numerous Indian tribes in our own country. 
Central America and the West Indies. The 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 85 

southern extremity of South America and the 
natives of Brazil, have received the Hght of the 
gospel through their unwearied labours. Nor 
let another thing which has been said be for- 
gotten : that the great Christian nations of the 
earth are what they are, in consequence of 
the earnest Christian labours of lovers of souls 
belonging to them. Thus it is seen that they 
have compassed the world around, and that 
their efforts for the evangelization of mankind 
are universal.* And if it is true, as has been 
said, that the only way to do the world real 
and lasting good, is to make the men who com- 
pose it the disciples of Jesus, then does the world 
owe much to those who love souls. This feeling 
existing in the hearts of all Christians alike is a 
strong bond of union between them. They are 
conscious that it is, and thus in all their labours 
for souls their hands are greatly strengthened. 
But their labours have not only yielded spirit- 
ual fruit, they have been productive of immense 
incidental benefits to mankind. Their disinter- 
ested, self-sacrificing exertions to promote the 
spiritual good of men, have opened the way for 

* See Christlieb's Protestant Foreign Missions. 



86 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

the social and moral elevation of millions, by in- 
creasing commerce, by stimulating scientific in- 
vestigations, by widening the field of all kinds of 
useful knowledge. 

If sin is an evil in itself, and if it is the cause 
of all mental and bodily suffering, then he is a 
benefactor of men who is instrumental in freeing 
them from the dominion of sin, and in making 
them even to a partial extent holy. But this is 
just the good which lovers of souls are instru- 
mental in bringing on fheir fellow-men. These 
are the ones whom God uses as His instruments 
to convert men, and to implant in them new 
views, new relishes, and new affections, which 
blessed change of nature results in their living 
holy and happy lives. 

It is by means of the earnest endeavours of 
lovers of souls that men are delivered from 
their blindness to spiritual things, while they 
are brought to look upon the attractions of the 
world in their true light. Things on the earth, 
things which are seen — these are scriptural 
expressions. We are to understand by them all 
the attractions which belong to time and to the 
world into which we are born, all the objects 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 87 

which here appeal to our desires and affections, 
as wealth, human approbation and love, earthly, 
honours and friendships, science and literature, 
the delights which minister to a refined taste and 
to bodily appetites. It cannot be denied that 
these are God's gifts to man, but they may be 
overvalued, and it constitutes much of the folly 
and sin of unrenewed men that they do overvalue 
them, and even attribute to them an importance 
of which they are utterly destitute. This esti- 
mate which men of the world form of temporal 
things is fatal, it is destructive. It is looking at 
the things which are seen in a false light, out of 
their relation to eternity and to the spiritual 
world. Only one thing can remove their delu- 
sion and save them from ruin. It is to become 
possessed of a faith which will enable them to 
see spiritual things with all the glory and sweet 
attractiveness which belong to them. The soul 
no sooner receives this faith, this perception of 
spiritual things in their real nature, than its delu- 
sion is removed and its salvation is begun. 
Though this faith or spiritual discernment is the 
effect of an unction from the Holy One, yet when- 
ever men become believers they owe their gift 



88 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

of faith under God to lovers of souls. It is only 
by means of the labours of such, that men are 
delivered from their blindness to spiritual things 
and turned from darkness to light. Nor are 
those who are rescued through their labours un- 
willing to acknowledge this. While they give 
all the glory of their salvation to God, they re- 
member with grateful feelings the human instru- 
ments of their deliverance. 



CHAPTER XV. 

VERY GREAT LOVE FOR SOULS IS A GRACE V^HICH 
ALL MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL MAY BE EX- 
PECTED TO POSSESS. 

'T^HEY may well be expected to possess it, 
^ but the mere fact that they are called to 
the ministry does not secure it for them. They 
must obtain the gift precisely as other Christians 
do. Their office has not the slightest tendency 
to awaken within them pity for the perishing. 
And when they possess the gift, they must use 
the same means to increase it which private 
Christians use. It is admitted that there are 
qualifications bestowed upon ministers to fit 
them for their peculiar work, which are not 
granted to private Christians, but as it regards 
love for souls, they must make exertions to 
obtain it just as much as others. 

2. There is another respect in which, as to 
this matter, the minister, and he who does not 
hold that office, are precisely on the same foot- 

89 



90 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

ing. Both are bound to work for this result as 
much as they are able. It may not be in my 
power to employ those gifts and opportunities to 
save men which ministers employ, because I 
may not possess their gifts and opportunities, 
but I am as truly bound to do what I can to win 
souls, as they are to do what they can. 

3. Ministers encounter many of the same hin- 
drances to increasing in love for souls as the 
private Christian. They have the [same love of 
ease; the same fear of derision, and of losing the 
friendship of men ; the same inordinate appetites 
and passions; the same slowness to discern the 
things of the Spirit; the same susceptibility to 
the power of worldly attractions, and the same 
tendency to set their affections on things on the 
earth. These are hindrances to engaging in the 
work of saving souls which ministers encounter 
no less than others. 

4. But there is one temptation which besets 
ministers of the gospel, which others who pro- 
fess to love souls do not have in as great a 
degree. As they occupy conspicuous positions 
in the church, they are in danger of being 
actuated by ambitious motives. And then, the 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 91 

nature of some of their duties is such, that they 
are required to perform literary labours. Thus 
at the very time that they are writing sermons in 
their studies, or preaching in the sanctuary to 
benefit souls, they are in the greatest danger of 
being influenced by a desire for human applause. 
The desire for human applause must be destruc- 
tive of the feeling of love for souls in proportion 
to the degree in which it is indulged. ''Love 
for Christ, and a longing to save souls, ought, of 
course, to be the great motives and inducements 
to ministerial labour, but it will be admitted that 
these principles of action do not ordinarily 
attain, without much cultivation^ that habitual 
preponderance — that overmastering influence 
over the mind and heart — which they ought to 
possess, and which they must possess in every 
truly faithful minister." * 

*With reference to this excessive desire for human applause, 
which, with almost every one, is very often the impelling motive, 
the eminent John Foster writes as follows: "I appeal to the 
reflective man of conscience, whether he has not felt that a very 
small degree of the indulgence of human applause is enough to 
prevail over the desire to please God and to do good to men. So 
mightily does the feeling tend to an excess, destructive of the very 
essence of piety, that it ought (excepting in the cases where human 



92 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

5. Ministers, in their love for souls, and in 
their efforts to save them, should resemble Christ, 
the Good Shepherd. Our dear Lord, in His 
labours to do good, was unselfish and self-deny- 

estimation is sought purely as a means toward some valuable end) 
to be opposed and repressed in a manner NOT MUCH LESS uncon- 
ditional than if it were purely evil. Whatever tends to animate it 
with new force is most pernicious. The New Testament, though 
not requiring the absolute extinction of the desire of human 
applause, yet alludes to most of its operations with censure, exhi- 
bits probably no approved instance of its indulgence, and abounds 
with the most emphatically cogent representations, both of its 
pernicious influence when it predominates in the mind, and of its 
powerful tendency to acquire this predominance. Insomuch that 
a serious reader of the Bible will perceive that the question is not 
so much how far he may encourage it, as by what means he may 
repress it ; and that in the effort to repress it there is no possibiHty 
of going to an excess." Ministers of the gospel, even the most 
faithful and useful of them, would be the first to admit that they 
are entirely too much under the influence of this love of human 
approbation. How often does a minister, when preparing to go 
from home to preach on some Sabbath, find himself tempted to 
select among his sermons one which may gain for him the good 
opinion of the audience as a superior preacher. Christ's true 
ministers often feel, with grief, that their thoughts much more 
promptly turn to the consideration of human praise than of divine 
approbation and the good of souls. They desire to be heartily 
willing- to be forgotten, overlooked, disesteemed, provided that no 
harm is done to poor souls thereby, and that the Saviour is not 
dishonoured. 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 93 

ing. He was not self-indulgent. He did not 
consult His own ease. He did not spare Himself. 
He was patient as a teacher. He was faithful. 
He was fearless. He was the friend of little 
children. He did not shrink from contact with 
poverty, nor with those whom the refined and 
cultivated despised as grossly ignorant. He 
preached in a way to be understood by the most 
unlettered. In all this His under shepherds 
should resemble Him. They will then show that 
they have a portion of that love for souls which 
their Lord and Master exhibited. But there is 
one respect in which their manner of pleading 
with sinners must necessarily be totally dis- 
similar to Christ's. The law which the blessed 
Saviour voluntarily subjected Himself to, He 
never disobeyed. None could convince Him of 
sin, whereas all His ministers are sinful, like 
other men. They are born in sin, and under the 
sentence of death, and it is only by free grace 
that they are pardoned and regenerated, and 
in some degree sanctified, and made heirs of 
heaven. They cannot, therefore, as the Saviour 
could, address sinners with the air and manner 
of one who is conscious of being sinless. Their 



94 LOVE FOR SOULS. 

manner of delivering their message should lead 
every hearer to see that they feel themselves to 
be under the same obligations to repent of sin, 
and to come to Jesus daily for forgiveness, as 
others are. 

6. A minister's success in winning souls may 
possibly not be in exact proportion to his love 
for them, or to his faithfulness in labouring for 
them. ^' The spirit of fidelity may be given him 
for other ends; ends personal to himself, judicial 
to sinners, sanctifying and sifting to the church/* 
His work of preaching Christ is acceptable to 
God, whatever may be the result of his labours. 
He is unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them 
that are saved and in them that perish. Fidelity 
as God's ambassadors, and as the shepherds of 
souls, is to be tested, not by visible success, but 
by faithfulness in the delivery of our message, 
and by the care, and watchfulness and prayerful- 
ness used in its discharge. Prophets and apos- 
tles, and thousands of beloved labourers, have 
toiled faithfully, and toiled long, without great 
visible results of their efforts, and God has been 
greatly glorified by their fidelity and labours. 

7. A minister's love for souls will be in exact 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 



95 



proportion to his inward holiness. This must 
be so, because genuine pity for the perishing is 
pity for them considered as under the dominion 
of sin. An itinerant revival preacher may make 
loud professions of love for sinners, and yet have 
very little of the feeling. God alone can know 
just how much holiness we possess, and therefore 
He alone can know how much we love souls. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HOW LOVE FOR PERISHING SOULS MAY BE 
INCREASED. 

QUPPOSING that you possess this love in 
^ some degree, in order that it may become 
stronger, use the following means. 

1. Resolve in reliance upon divine aid that 
you will grow in love for souls. This resolution 
is necessary. You will hardly attain to a greater 
degree of pity for them unless you first resolve 
that you will. 

2. Reflect much upon the condition, and the 
wants of the unrenewed. You may know the 
awful facts relating to their condition, but if these 
lie dormant in your mind, they will not arouse you- 
You must deliberately think of them. Let not 
the cares and the pursuits of life then so wholly 
occupy you as to prevent you from reflecting 
thoroughly on their fearful state. Consider also 
certain truths already dwelt upon. We trust 
that we have convinced you that souls must be 

96 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 97 

loved in order that they may be saved, since if 
not loved they will be neglected ; that no man 
can be a disciple of Christ who does not love 
perishing souls, it being as truly a Christian 
grace as any other fruit of holiness; that for 
Christians to be even deficient in love for souls 
is a great sin; that we fail to fulfil one of the 
ends of our continuance in this world whenever 
we are wanting in love for souls; that the Holy 
Spirit communicates the same pity for the 
perishing to the people of God which He Him- 
self has and which also belongs to the other 
persons of the glorious Trinity, so that there is 
something of the divine nature in it ; and that it 
should deeply affect our hearts and make us 
more active in the work of saving souls that 
God himself seeks to save them. God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten son 
that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish but have everlasting life. And then in 
His word He tenderly, earnestly and repeatedly 
pleads with sinners, assuring them that He has 
no pleasure in their death. If, besides contem- 
plating the sad condition and the pressing wants 
of the unpardoned and the unrenewed, you fre- 
5 



98 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

quently ponder these truths, it will be almost 
certain to make your pity for them more intense 
and vivid. As to their sad condition, which 
you ought more frequently to contemplate, if 
you really consider it, you will take into view 
the punishment which awaits them in the next 
world unless they speedily repent and believe. 
*' Although the Bible speaks with reserve of the 
details of the future misery of the impenitent 
and unbelieving, yet it clearly teaches the gen- 
eral truth that they shall perish, that their ruin 
shall be total and final, and that their condition 
shall be growing worse and worse forever." Often 
reflect upon this their doom, however painful it 
may be to you. It is necessary that you should, 
in order that you may not lose the pity you 
even now feel for them. 

3. As, however, this pity is a gift which God 
alone can bestow, earnestly pray for it. Ask for 
it with confession of your dependence on God — 
with confession of your dependence on Him for 
the very desire for it. To your sense of depen- 
dence let faith be joined. Ask also with perse- 
verance. Keep on earnestly entreating till you 
obtain the blessing. It was shown in a previous 



LOVE FOR SOULS, 



99 



chapter that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Let 
your prayer then be addressed to Him. When 
you offer requests for temporal blessings, or 
when you ask that God's providential efficiency 
may bring good out of evil, it is not especially 
important that you should address the third 
person of the Trinity rather than the other 
divine persons. But there are gifts of which 
the Holy Spirit is peculiarly the author. He, 
rather than the Father or the Son, is the author 
of the Christian graces, of which love for souls 
is one. When, therefore, you supplicate for this 
blessing, it is proper that you directly address the 
Holy Spirit. 

4. Faithfully intercede for perishing souls, 
and you will find that you are using another 
sure means of increasing your love for them. 
Pray for their renewing, for their salvation. 
Entreat the Holy Spirit to carry on more rapidly 
His work of new creating the spiritually dead. 
Many of God's children are doing this. The 
more you commend your fellow men to God the 
stronger will your love for them become. The 
desire which you already have for the salvation 
of the perishing has been implanted in your 



lOO LOVE FOR SOULS. 

heart by divine power. Now, when we give 
utterance in words to those desires which God 
Himself has implanted in our hearts, we use the 
very means which above all others will increase 
their strength. 

5. Besides interceding in your closet for the 
unconverted, exert yourself in other ways. 
Some of the various ways of putting forth effort 
to save men have already been mentioned. As far 
as it is in your power, make use of these means^ 
Join the self-denying company of tract distri- 
butors. Converse with the impenitent. Always 
have before your mind some one at whose con- 
version you are aiming. Personal work in behalf 
of souls will be likely to be effective when you 
separate men and make them individual objects 
of your attention. If you are already a Sabbath- 
school teacher, make it your aim to save every 
child committed to your care. If the means of 
grace and holiness are largely withheld from the 
members of your class at home, strive to supply 
this lack. Seek to take the place of faithless, 
godless parents. Make the salvation of their 
children, whose spiritual welfare you providen- 
tially have in charge, a matter of deeper concern 



LOVE FOR SOULS. lOI 

than your necessary food. Take a livelier interest 
in the agencies employed by the Church to advance 
the Saviour's kingdom. Identify yourself with 
them in every way in your power. Read their 
reports and periodicals, that you may keep your- 
self acquainted with all the work they are per- 
forming. By using means which have an indirect 
influence, as well as those which are directly 
powerful to save your fellow men, you will greatly 
increase your love for souls. 

6. The blessed Saviour has had many servants 
whose consuming love for souls has made their 
names famous. The lives of many of these have 
been written. Read the lives of these men. 
Think much about their sacrifices and toils joy- 
fully undergone, and w^hile you muse your heart 
will be touched. You will feel yourself knit to 
them in bonds of Christian affection. Your 
heart will be stirred with gratitude to God for 
giving such labourers to the church, and you 
yourself will partake of that yearning love for 
sinners which actuated them. 

7. Whoever has pity on sinners in danger of 
dying in their sins and of being forever lost, is 
truly merciful, for he is merciful to the souls of 



I02 LOVE FOR SOULS, 

men. And the Bible says : " Blessed are the 
"merciful for they shall obtain mercy." It also 
says : '* He which converteth the sinner from the 
error of his way shall save a soul from death 
and shall hide a multitude of sins." Also, '* They 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars forever and ever." Fre- 
quently ponder these sayings of God's word. 

8. Love the blessed Saviour more, and you 
will grow in love for souls, for the love which 
Christians have for souls is in exact proportion 
to their love for Him. Throughout all ages the 
men who have laboured most and suffered most 
to save souls, have been men animated and con- 
trolled by Christ's love to them, and by their 
love to Christ. 

We would ask you, reader, in conclusion, 
never to forget the intimate connection which 
exists between the salvation of souls and the 
glory of the blessed Saviour. Whenever a 
sinner is saved, saved in spite of the opposition 
of Satan and all his hosts, Jesus is victorious. He 
is glorified, a new star is added to His crown. 



LOVE FOR SOULS. 103 

This thought should have a stronger influence 
than that which any other could have to impel 
you to seek the salvation of the lost. Indeed 
their redemption should never be thought of 
apart from the glory of Christ. Your desire for 
His exaltation should be stronger by far than 
any other passion of your soul. Perhaps our 
prayers and labours for the conversion of men 
would more frequently be blessed to their salva- 
tion, were we, in the efforts which we put forth, 
more influenced by the desire that our blessed 
Redeemer should be glorified. 



A NEW EDITION. 



Books and Reading. 

BY 

NOAH PORTER, LL.D., President of Yale College. 

With afi appendix giving valuable directions for courses of 

reading^ prepared by James M. Hubbard, late 

of the Bosto?i Public Library, 



1 vol., crow^n 8vo., _ - - $2 OO. 

It would be difficult to name any American better qualified 
than President Porter to give advice upon the important 
question of ** What to Read and How to Read." His 
acquaintance with the whole range of English literature is 
most thorough and exact, and his judgments are eminently 
candid and mature. A safer guide, in short, in all literary 
matters, it would be impossible to find. 



"The great value of the book lies not in prescribing courses of reading, but in a 
discussion of principles, which lie at the foundation of all valuable systematic reading." 

— The Christian Standard. 

*' Young people who wish to know what to read and how to read it, or how to pursue 
a particular course of reading, cannot do better than begin with this book, which is a 
practical guide to the whole domain of literature, and is full of wise suggestions for the 
improvement of the mind." — Philadelj>hia Bulletin. 

*' President Porter himself treats of all the leading departments of literature of course 
with abundant knowledge, and with what is of equal importance to him, with a very 
definite and serious purpose to be of service to inexperienced readers. There is no better 
or more interesting book of its kind now within their reach." — Boston Advertiser. 

" President Noah Porter's ' Books and Reading' is far the most practical and satis- 
factory treatise on the subject that has been published. It not only answers the qnestions 
' What books shall I read ?' and 'How shall I read them? ' but it supplies a large and 
well-arranged catalogue under appropriate heads, sufficient for a large family or a small 
public ixhxzxy:''— Boston Zion's Herald. 



^^ For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid.^ -upon receipt oj 
price, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



Men and Books; 

OR, STUDIES IN HOMILETICS 

Lectures Introductory to the *' Theory of Preaching." 
By Professor AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. 



One Volume. Cro^Arn 8vo. - - $2.00 

Professor Phelps* second volume of lectures is more popular and gen- 
eral in its application than "The Theory of Preaching." It is devoted to 
a discussion of the sources of culture and power in the profession of the 
pulpit, its power to absorb and appropriate to its own uses the w^orld of 
real life in the present, and the world of the past, as it lives in books. 

There is but little in the volume that is not just as valuable to all 
students looking forward to a learned profession as to theological students, 
and the charm of the style and the lofty tone of the book make it difficult 
to lay it down when it is once taken up. 



** It is a book obviously free from all padding. It is a live book, animated as well 
as sound and instructive, in which conventionalities are brushed aside, and the author 
goes straight to the marrow of the subject. No minister can read it without being waked 
up to a higher conception of the possibilities of his calling." 

— Professor George P. Fisher. 

*' It is one of the most helpful books in the interests of self-culture that has ever been 
written. While specially intended for young clergymen, it is almost equally well adapted 
for students in all the liberal professions." — Standard of the Cross. 

" We are sure that no minister or candidate for the ministry can read it without profit. 
It is a tonic for one's mind to read a book so laden with thought and suggestion, and 
written in a style so fresh, strong and bracing." — Boston Watchman. 

*' Viewed in this light, for their orderly and wise and rich suggestiveness, these lec- 
tures of Professor Phelps are of simply incomparable merit. Every page is crowded with 
observations and suggestions of striking pertinence and force, and of that kind of wisdom 
which touches the roots of a matter. Should one begin to make^quotations illustrative of 
this remark, there would be no end of them. While the book is meant specially for the 
preacher, so rich is it in sage remark, In acute discernment, in penetrating observation of 
how men are most apt to be influenced, and what are the most telling qualities in the va- 
rious forms of literary expression, it must become a favorite treatise with the best minds in 
a.11 the other professions. The author is, in a very high sense of the term, an artist, as for 
a quarter of a century he has been one of the most skillful instructors of young men in 
that which is the noblest of all the arts." — Chicago Advance^ 



*^ For sale by all booksellers^ or sent^ post-paid^ upon receipt of 
price^ by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 AND 745 Broadway, New York.. 



The Power of Prayer, 

Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace 

AT the Fulton-Street and other Meetings in New 

York and Elsewhere in 1857 and 1858. 

By SAMUEL IREN-ffiUS PRIME, D. D. 



One Volume. 12mo. Cloth, - - $1.50. 



*• The Fulton-Street Prayer- Meeting " is the type and exponent of a new 
phase of Christian life. Not since the apostolic age has there been so direct 
and manifest a connection between simple prayer and the display of God's 
converting grace. The associations of the place have become hallowed — the 
very atmosphere of it instinct with divine influence. Its full history can 
never be written. Dr. Prime has gathered into this book many of the won- 
derful facts connected with this and similar meetings for prayer, and traced 
the rise and progress of this great religious movement, and recounted very 
many remarkable answers to prayer, in the conversion of sinners, the 
reclaiming of drunkards, and the restoring of the backslider. Additional 
chapters are given in this edition, bringing specially into view the power of 
prayer among our soldiers during the late war. It is a book of profound 
interest, which cannot fail to stimulate to prayer and quicken faith. It has 
already had a wide circulation, having been republished in England, France, 
and the East. 

" No household in America, where the faith of Christ is the ruling principle of life, 
will be without this thrilling record of His great work. No romance will crowd it out, 
for no romance can equal it in absorbing interest. Since the days of miracles, no more 
startling accounts of the answers of God to prayer have been written." — Harper* s 
Weekly. 

Fifteen Years of Prayer 

In the Fulton Street Meeting. 



One volume. 12mo. Cloth, - - $1.50 



^% For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



The Theory of Preaching, 



OR 



LECTURES ON HOMILETICS, 

By Professor AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. 



One volume, 8vo, ----- $2.50 

This work, now offered to the public, is the growth of 
more than thirty years' practical experience in teaching. 
While primarily designed for professional readers, it will be 
found to contain much that will be of interest to thoughtful 
laymen. The writings of a master of style of broad and 
catholic mind are always fascinating; in the present case the 
wealth of appropriate and pointed illustration renders this 
doubly the case« 

CRITICAL NOTICES. 

*' In the range of Protestant homiletical literature, we venture to affirm that its equal 
cannot be found for a conscientious, scholarly, and exhaustive treatment of the theory 
and practice of preaching:. * * * Xo the treatment of his subject Dr. Phelps brings 
.such qualifications as very few men now living possess. His is one of those delicate and 
sensitive natures which are instinctively critical, and yet full of what Matthew Arnold 
happily calls sweet reasonableness. * * * To this characteristic graciousness of 
nature Dr. Phelps adds a style which is preeminently adapted to his special work. It is 
nervous, epigrammatic, and racy." — The Exa7ni7ter and Chronicle. 

"It is a wise, spirited, practical and devout treatise upon a topic of the utmost con- 
sequence to pastors and people alike, and to the salvation of mankind. It is elaborate 
but not redundant, rich in the fruits of experience, yet thoroughly timely and current, 
and it easily tfikes the very first rank among volumes of its class. — The Congrega- 
tionalist. 

"The layman will find it delightful reading, and ministers of all denominations and 
of all degrees of experience will rejoice in it as a veritable mine of wisdom." — New York 
Christian Advocate, 

"The volume is to be commended to young men as a superb example of the art in 
which it -aims to instruct them." — The Ifide^endeiit. 

"The reading of it is a mental tonic. The preacher cannot but feel often his heart 
burning within him under its influence. We could wish it might be in the hands of every 
theological student and of every pastor. " — The Watch-man. 

"Thirty-one years of experience as a professor of homiletlcs in a leading American 
Theological Seminary by a man of genius, learning and power, are condensed into this 
valuable volume."— C-^rzi-^z^w Intelligencer. 

** Our professional readers will make a great mistake If they suppose this volume is 
simply a heavy, monotonous discussion, chiefly adapted to the class-room. It is a 
delightful volume for general reading." — Boston Zion's Herald. 



^J^ For sale by all booksellers^ or sent^ post-paid^ upon receipt oj 
price^ by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



Communism and Socialism 

IN THEIR HISTORY AND THEORY. 

A SKETCH 
By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, D.D., LL.D, 



One Volume, 12mo, $1.50. 



This book is the only comprehensive review of its subject, within 
small compass, yet exactly meeting the needs of the reader, that is acces- 
sible in English. The candor of the discussion is remarkable; the book is 
the argument of a perfectly fair reasoner, painting nothing in too dark 
colors, but taking his opponents at their best. It maybe safely prophesied 
that beyond the large audience which v/ill take up this thoroughly ex- 
cellent little volume for purposes of study, there will be a still wider one 
who will read it from pure interest in the history of communities and 
social experiments, from the Essenes and Therapeutse down to the Inter- 
national. 

CRITICAIi NOTICES, 

*' The calm, thoughtful, and logical view this volume takes of the sub- 
ject should recommend it to the attention of readers of every degree." — 
Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 

*'The work is an epitome of the whole history of the socialistic and 
communistic movement, and will prove a most valuable text-book to all 
who have not made themselves familiar with this great subject. " — N. Y. 
Commercial Advertiser, 

*' Altogether, this little book contains a completer view of the compli- 
cated forms of socialism than can be elsewhere found within similar com- 
pass, and may safely be taken as a guide by students and thinkers of all 
shades of opinion. " — ^V. Y. Herald. 

" The discussion of the history and theory of the various forms of 
communism and sociahsm contained in this volume is marked by the com- 
prehensive research, clearness of perception, sobriety of judgment, and 

fairness of statement characteristic of the author No previous 

writer on the subject has exhibited so clear a perception of the vital points 
at issue, or has offered more sound and wholesome counsels in regard to 
their treatment."— iV. Y. Tribune. 



*^* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
-trice^ by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



The 



Conflict of Christianity 

WITH HEATHENISM. 

By DR. GERHARD UHLHORN, 

TRANSLATED BY 
PROF. EGBERT C. SMYTH and REV. C. J. H. ROPES. 



OriQ Volume, Crown 8vo, $2.50. 

This volume describes with extraordinary vividness and spirit the 
religious and moral condition of the Pagan world, the rise and spread 
of Christianity, its conflict with heathenism, and its final victory. There 
is no work that portrays the heroic age of the ancient church with equal 
spirit, elegance, and incisive power. The author has made thorough and 
independent study both of the early Christian literature and also of the 
contemporary records of classic heathenism. 



CRITICAIi NOTICES. 

•' It is easy to see why this volume is so highly esteemed. It is 
systematic, thorough, and concise. But its power is in the wide mental 
vision and well-balanced imagination of the author, which enable him to 
reconstruct the scenes of ancient history. An exceptional clearness and 
force mark his style." — Boston Advertiser. 

•• One might read many books without obtaining more than a fraction 
of the profitable information here conveyed ; and he might search a long 
time before finding one which would so thoroughly fix his attention and 
command his interest." — Phil. S. S. Times. 

"Dr. Uhlhorn has described the great conflict with the power of a 
master. His style is strong and attractive, his descriptions vivid and 
graphic, his illustrations highly colored, and his presentation of the subject 
earnest and effective." — Providence Journal. 

" The work is marked for its broad humanitarian views, its learning, 
and the wide discretion in selecting from the great field the points of 
deepest interest." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

" This is one of those clear, strong, thorough-going books which are 
a scholar's delight."— ^ar//*^r^ Religious Herald. 



*^* For sale by all booksellers, or sent post-paid upon receipt of 
price^ by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

Nos. 743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



Old Faiths in New Light 

BY 

NEWMAN SMYTH, 

Author of ** The Religious Feeling,'^'* 



One Volume, 12mo, cloth, - - « $l.SO. 



This work aims to meet a growing need by gathering materials o\ 
faith which have been quarried by many specialists in their own depart- 
ments of Biblical study and scientific research, and by endeavoring to 
put these results of recent scholarship together according to one leading 
idea in a modern construction of old faith. Mr. Smyth's book is remark- 
able no less for its learning and wide acquaintance with prevailing modes 
of thought, than for its fairness and judicial spirit. 



CRITICAL. NOTICES. 



"The author is logical and therefore clear. He also is master of a singularly 
attractive literary style. Few writers, whose books come under our eye, succeed in 
treating metaphysicai and philosophical themes in a manner at once so forcible and so 
interesting. We speak strongly about this book, because we think it exceptionally 
valuable. It is just such a book as ought to be in the hands of all intelligent men and 
women who have received an education sufficient to enable them to read intelligently 
about such subjects as are discussed herein, and the number of such persons is very 
much larger than some people think." — Congregationalist. 

" We have before had occasion to notice the force and elegance of this writer, and 
his new book shows scholarship even more advanced. * * * When we say, with 
some knowledge of how much is undertaken by the saying, that there is probably no book 
of moderate compass which combines in greater degree clearness of style with profundity 
of subject and of reasoning, we fulfil simple duty to an author whose success is all the 
more marked and gratifying from the multitude of kindred attempts with which we have 
been flooded from all sorts of pens." — Presbyterian. 

**The book impresses us as clear, cogent and helpful, as vigorous in style as it is 
honest in purpose, and calculated to render valuable service in showing that reHgion and 
science are not antagonists but allies, and that both lead up toward the one God. We 
fancy that a good many readers of this volume will entertain toward the author a feeling 
of sincere personal gratitude." — Boston Journal. 

" On the whole, we do not know of a book which may better be commended to 
thoughtful persons whose minds have been unsettled by objections of modern thought. 
It will be found a wholesome work for every minister in the land to read." 

— Exa7niner and Chronicle. 

'* It is a long time since we have met with an abler or fresher theological treatise 
than Old Faiths in Ne^v Light, hy Newman Smyth, an author who in his work on 
'*The Religious Feeling'' has already shown ability as an expounder of Christian 
doctrine." — Independent. 



*0* For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid^ upon receipt of price. 

CHART.KS SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

Nos. 743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. 



IIP 



